The Demands of the Divines
by Sweet Talos in Sovngarde
Summary: Fakhriya, a young Redguard woman, sought her fortune in Skyrim as a bard. She certainly didn't expect to be the legendary hero who would face the World Eater, but at least the responsibilities of the Dragonborn were defined by prophecy. Some decisions are more difficult than facing a dragon, and for Fakhriya, there were no Elder Scrolls to guide her choices.
1. Chapter 1

"All right, now. Settle down a second," the bard shouted over the voices of the rowdy crowd. "You know I would never get in the way of a good time, but it isn't every day that we here at the Bannered Mare are graced with a visitor from the Cloud District."

Mikael, the bard, chuckled and indicated with his hands that the crowd should be quiet as sporadic claps and boos came from the patrons of the tavern.

"And we are certainly lucky to have a visitor as beautiful and talented as this one. Fakhriya, Thane of Whiterun, won't you please join me?" Mikael alternately applauded and waved his hands to encourage the Thane to come to the far end of the firepit in the back of the tavern.

"Help me out here, guys," Mikael said to get the people near him to clap their encouragement as well.

At a table near the entrance of the tavern sat two women, a Redguard and a Dunmer. The Redguard looked at the floor and held her hand in front of her eyes as if she were embarrassed. The Dunmer applauded and tilted her head towards the back of the tavern to encourage the other woman to concede to the bard's wishes.

"If you had wanted to be inconspicuous, we could have stayed home," said Jenassa, the Dunmer. "You may as well give the people what they want."

Fakhriya, the Redguard, got to her feet, placed her left hand lightly on her chest and extended her right hand towards to Mikael in a gesture that suggested she was both surprised and flattered by the invitation.

Mikael clapped with renewed strength as the Thane weaved her way to the back of the tavern. He turned slightly to his left to order a young man sitting on the floor behind him to get a lute for the Thane and then quickly met the Thane's gaze again as if he were afraid that she would return to her seat if he failed to maintain eye contact.

"Fakhriya, Thane of Whiterun," Mikael announced again as the Thane took a position next to him in front of the firepit and accepted the lute from the young man.

Fakhriya, who appeared to be in her mid-twenties, was a half foot shorter than the blond bard. She wore a simple dress in a rich brown that nearly matched the shade of her skin. A bright white neckline drew the eye up to her face. Her hair was loosely tied back in a ponytail that extended from the back of her head to the nape of her neck. Short, black bangs hung just above her hazel eyes. The fire light danced on the gems of the Amulet of Dibella she wore around her neck and the circlet she wore on her head.

"This is a local favorite and the first song I ever learned," Mikael said as both he and Fakhriya put their instruments in playing position. In harmonizing unison they sang:

_There once was a hero named Ragnar the Red, who came riding to Whiterun from ole Rorikstead._

Mikael and Fakhriya played an extended set that included well known drinking songs and bawdy ballads and a few local songs that extolled the exploits of the Companions. Near the middle of the set Fakhriya did a solo piece about a ghostly woman who wandered the shores near Dawnstar in search of a lover who never returned from sea.

The final number of the set was a relatively new song that had circulated the province of Skyrim after the death of High King Torygg and was gaining popularity as hostilities between the Empire and the rebellious Stormcloaks escalated from isolated skirmishes to full blown battles. A group of eight or ten Imperial Legionnaires crowded around a small table recognized the song from its first notes and sang mightily with the bards:

_We drink to our youth, to the days come and gone. The Age of Aggression is just about done._

With the end of Mikael's final set the crowd at the Bannered Mare started to thin. The late hours of Loredas had become the wee hours of Sundas. A different bard, a Breton, played a flute as Fakhriya returned to the table where Jenassa sat.

"Whew! What a night!" Fakhriya sighed as she slumped into the chair and fanned herself with her hand.

No sooner had Fakhriya sat down and Mikael appeared at the table with three Honningbrew Meads. He placed the bottles on the table and opened his arms to Fakhriya. She stood and accepted his warm embrace.

"By the Eights, how long has it been?" Mikael asked as he lifted Fakhriya to the tips of her toes. When he returned Fakhriya to her feet he kissed her lightly on both cheeks and then took hold of her hands to hold them out as he examined her outfit.

"You look positively stunning," he exclaimed.

Mikael released Fakhriya's hands, turned towards the Dunmer and extended his right hand.

"Jenassa," he said curtly as the Dunmer stood and accepted his handshake. Mikael pulled her into a backslapping embrace and pecked her left cheek before he released her.

"You are as lovely as always," he said as Jenassa backed away from him and wiped her cheek.

"You know she hates that," Fakhriya scolded jokingly.

"Can I help it if I'm Dibella's gift to beautiful women?" Mikael asked with a rakish grin as he took a seat at the table.

"It was quite a crowd in here tonight, wasn't it?" Fakhriya asked.

"It's been like this for a while now," Mikael said. The smile melted from his face as he surveyed the length of the tavern. "It's all the soldiers. The Imperials aren't stationed here, but they come into the city to drink. The Jarl may not have picked a side in the war yet, but the people of Whiterun have."

Mikael turned his attention back to the women at the table.

"But enough talk of the politics of the Hold, my Thane," Mikael said in a mockingly serious tone. His smile returned as he took Fakhriya's right hand into his own.

"When did you get to Whiterun? What have you been doing?"

Fakhriya slipped her right hand from Mikael's grasp and took hold of her mead.

"Jenassa and I have just recently arrived in the city. We're down from Windhelm."


	2. Chapter 2

Nearly a month prior to Fakhriya's reunion with Mikael in Whiterun, she and Jenassa had been traveling north with Delphine, the proprietor of the Sleeping Giant Inn in Riverwood.

"I don't think we're going to make it before nightfall," Delphine said as the party approached the point where the Yorgrim River met the White River, "but I would rather press on to Kynesgrove than spend the night in Windhelm."

Although both women were cold and tired, Fakhriya and Jenassa gave their agreement.

During the last days of Morning Star was not the best time to travel near Windhelm, even with the benefit of the midday sun. But as the sun set behind the women, cold winds whipped down from the summits to the north and snow blew so wildly, it was hard to tell whether the flakes in the air were new snowfall or had been blown from the high banks already on the ground.

The winds subsided and there were fewer clouds in the sky as the women passed to the south of Eastmarch's capital and then turned south again on the other side of the White River. The stars and the two moons were bright in the sky almost as soon as dusk gave way to night. The road south was on a steep ascent that was made even more treacherous as the day's melted snow refroze into puddles of ice.

The hamlet of Kynesgrove was nestled on the leeward side of an arm of the Velothi Mountains some distance north of Eastmarch's expanse of hot springs. The narrow forest road that led up to the town was nearly free of ice, which made the climb much more manageable. The mood of the party lightened as the women discussed their plans for hot food and a warm bed once they reached their destination.

It had been a difficult and lengthy journey, but Delphine had insisted that they reach Kynesgrove as quickly as possible.

Delphine was not simply an innkeeper. She was one of the few surviving members of an order called the Blades. The Blades had been accomplished dragonslayers long before the rise of the Reman Dynasty of the Second Era. Once the Order learned that the Divine Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time, had granted a human the ability to consume the souls of fallen dragons to protect humankind from the end of the world at the hands of Akatosh's first born, the Blades committed themselves to the reverence and protection of the recipients of Akatosh's gift, the Dragonborn. The power to consume dragon souls was contained in the Amulet of Kings, which was entrusted to the Emperors of first the Reman and then the Septim Dynasties.

At the close of the Third Era Mehrunes Dagon, the daedric prince of destruction, opened several gateways between the spiritual realm of the daedric princes and the mundane realm of mortals in what came to be called the Oblivion Crisis. After failing to relight the Dragonfire that maintained the barrier between the daedric and mundane realms, Martin, the last of the Septim Dragonborn Emperors, destroyed the Amulet of Kings so that he could take the dragon form of Akatosh in order to force Mehrunes Dagon back into Oblivion and reseal the barrier.

After the destruction of the Amulet of Kings, there were no Dragonborn for nearly two hundred years. The Oblivion Crisis had been a staggering blow to the entire continent of Tamriel. In the chaotic aftermath a minority faction of militant Altmer, the Thalmor, gained an upper hand in Summerset Isle, which was renamed Alinor. From that base the Thalmor asserted themselves throughout the continent. The Thalmor recognized Akatosh's gift to humankind as the biggest threat to their goal to secure the dominance of elves over humans and sought to destroy the Blades to prevent the return of a human Dragonborn.

In 4E 171 the Thalmor were powerful enough to bring an ultimatum to Emperor Titus Mede II which was designed to crush the Blades once and for all. The Great War began when the Emperor refused the Thalmor demands. Thalmor forces brought the Empire to its knees, but they were not powerful enough to overrun the combined forces of Cyrodiil, the seat of the Empire, and the loyal provinces, which included Skyrim. After five years of brutal fighting, Titus II sued for peace and agreed to the terms laid out by the Thalmor, which included the disbanding of the Blades and the outlaw of Talos worship. Talos was the birth name of the mortal Tiber Septim, a Nord who unified Tamriel under the banner of Cyrodiil and established the Septim Dynasty in the Third Era. As Talos, he was worshipped as the Ninth Divine.

Delphine had escaped from Cyrodiil at the start of the Great War and had been in hiding in Skyrim ever since. She had expected that she and any other surviving Blades would be tasked with defeating the dragon that attacked Helgen in 4E 201, but that changed when she learned there might be a Dragonborn.

Certain that the Greybeards in High Hrothgar, who taught the meditative discipline, the Way of the Voice, would summon the Dragonborn to retrieve the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller, Delphine found the object herself and left in its place a message for the Dragonborn to come to the inn in Riverwood. Delphine had previously come in possession of a Dragonstone that mapped the burial sites of dragons throughout Skyrim and believed she had discovered a pattern in the order of their resurrection. Delphine hoped that if she could reach a site with the supposed Dragonborn as the dragon buried there was being resurrected, she could determine if the rumors were true.

Fakhriya came to the inn with the message in her hand and asserted that she was the Dragonborn. Delphine intended to find out in Kynesgrove.

Any thoughts that the women had about rest or sustenance were dashed when they were confronted by villagers raising an alarm and running for their lives down the mountain road.

"There's a dragon up there! Run! Run! There's a dragon!"

Delphine and Jenassa unsheathed their weapons and ran up the road. Fakhriya took a moment to cast a spell on herself and removed an ebony bow from her back before she followed.

The road flattened in the middle of the village and circled around the inn that dominated the center of the town. Fakhriya lost sight of her friends and her sense of direction. She looked to the sky and saw the dragon circling overhead. A Stormcloak with his sword drawn ran past her on the road and ran up a path in the direction of the dragon. Fakhriya followed him.

The path led up a small hill behind the inn. When Fakhriya reached the top she saw the dragon hovering in the air above a stone mound. Its black wings made a terrifying sound as they flapped against the canopy of stars. She saw Jenassa and a couple of Stormcloak archers shooting arrows at the dragon, but the dragon seemed unfazed. Fakhriya sought cover in a copse of trees. In the confusion she could not find Delphine.

The dragon was Alduin, the dragon that had attacked Helgen. The first born and the destructive aspect of Akatosh. The World Eater.

Alduin shrieked. The stone mound exploded and sent debris – some pieces as large as boulders – in all directions. The animated skeleton of the dragon Sahloknir emerged from the pit inside the mound. A vortex of visible energy swirled around Sahloknir. The air seemed both to burn and to substantiate as it drew closer to Sahloknir's bones and the dragon's flesh was reconstructed seemingly piece by piece. When the physical restoration was complete, the empty pits of Sahloknir's eye sockets seemed to light from within. Alduin spoke to Sahloknir in the dragon tongue and the newly resurrected dragon responded in kind.

Alduin then turned in Fakhriya's direction and spoke to her in the dragon language. She understood only the word "Dovahkiin," the dragon term for Dragonborn. To be addressed that way made her blood run cold. Alduin then mocked her in the common tongue:

"You do not even know our tongue, do you? Such arrogance, to dare take for yourself the name of Dovah."

Dismissing the Dragonborn, Alduin turned to speak again to Sahloknir and then disappeared into the night. Sahloknir took to the air.

Sahloknir circled the burial mound and set a stream of fire onto the soldiers on the ground. The skrieks of the burning people were deafening. The dragon assumed a hovering position above the injured defenders of Kynesgrove. Fakhriya took the opportunity to fire several arrows into the dragon.

The hovering dragon turned to face Fakhriya and sucked in air.

"Wuld nah!" Fakhriya cried before the dragon could send a stream of flames in her direction. In the dragon's tongue the words meant "whirlwind fury". The force of the words propelled Fakhriya forward at a speed unmatched by any creature on Nirn. The energy of the words dissipated and Fakhirya turned around to find herself behind the dragon. She fired one more arrow into the creature's hide before she ran under her human strength to an outcropping of rocks.

The effects of the spell she had cast on herself earlier had dissipated as well. The spell provided the protection of armor. Without its effects, the mage robes she wore offered only the meager benefits of ordinary cloth. There was a flash of blue light as the spell was refreshed. Fakhriya then looked to the skies to see the dragon landing in the field directly in front of her.

It takes some time to concentrate the energy necessary to use a thu'um to evoke the magic of the dragons' words – the word thu'um means "shout" in the dragon language. Fakhriya could not use a thu'um to escape again so soon and under her human power she could not hope to outrun the dragon. She hastily put her bow on her back and unsheathed the ebony sword at her side.

She was going to have to fight.

Fakhriya slashed at the face of the beast. The dragon's head bobbed back and forth as the creature tried to find a way to snatch Fakhriya in its jaws without exposing its mouth to the swinging sword. The dragon snapped at Fakhriya and although it could not get hold of her, the force of its teeth was as damaging as any blade.

Fakhriya stood her ground, but she knew she could not face the dragon directly for too much longer.

There were several other people dealing blows to the dragon as well. Fakhriya was certain that if she could just get herself out of range of the dragon's jaws the beast would turn its attention to the immediate threat rather than pursue her.

Praying for the benevolence of Mara, Fakhriya located the copse that had offered her cover earlier in the night and shouted:

"Wuld nah!"

Fakhriya gave her thanks to the Divines as she came to a stop just short of the trees. She turned on her heels to see the dragon snapping at the people to its side. She fired several arrows into the beast. Finally, the beast reared its head and gave a horrifying shriek as it collapsed to the ground.

In the pit of her stomach, Fakhriya felt a pulling sensation compelling her to draw closer to the body of the dragon. As she approached, an eddy of energy emitted from the body and enveloped her. Her mind was cleared of all thought as she surrendered herself to the energy. The skin of the beast seemed to tear apart and burn, but instead of smoke, the tattered skin produced a visible energy that looked like licking flames. The flames rode on the vortex of energy that surrounded Fakhriya and were absorbed through every pore of her body. She felt consumed by a light that seemed to blind her without damaging her eyes.

Fakhriya's senses came flooding back as the energy surrounding her subsided and the bones of the fallen dragon turned cold. She had undone Alduin's restoration.

She had absorbed Sahloknir's soul.

"By the Nines, it's true." Delphine stared at Fakhriya in utter amazement. "You are the Dragonborn."

While the Stormcloaks who survived the fight with the dragon took inventory of themselves and their fallen comrades, Fakhriya and Delphine located Jenassa and the three women started down the hill to the village.

The women had been pumped from the thrill of the fight when they found each other, but their energy had left them by the time they reached the Braidwood Inn. They opened the door to find the common room of the inn empty. Figuring it would be a while before the proprietor felt safe about returning, the women left 30 septims on the bar to cover the cost of the beds they were about to commandeer. They could deal with any other incidentals after a couple of hours of sleep.

Fakhriya entered the common room to find Delphine and Jenassa sitting together enjoying a breakfast of cheese, bread and ale.

"Sit down and eat," Jenassa said as Fakhriya approached.

"Yes, sit down," Delphine said. "There is much to discuss. I'm sure you have a lot of questions about who I am and how I know so much about who you are. Now that I know for sure that you truly are Dragonborn, there is a lot of work to do."

After relating a brief history of the Blades and the events of the Great War, Delphine explained that she needed to know what the Thalmor knew about Alduin's return and whether they were, perhaps, even responsible for it. She outlined a plan to get into the Thalmor Embassy near Solitude to acquire whatever information could be found there.

"It'll take me some time to work out the logistics," Delphine said as her conversation with Fakhriya neared its end. "I'm heading back to Riverwood this morning. Join me there in a couple of weeks and I should have everything set."

Fakhriya and Jenassa remained at the table while Delphine collected her things and headed out.

"Since we have some time," Jenassa started, "can we visit my brother?"


	3. Chapter 3

Once Fakhriya proved she was truly the Dragonborn by killing a dragon and absorbing its soul in Kynesgrove, Delphine, a Blade who had been in hiding in Skyrim since the start of the Great War, left the village to return to Riverwood to set up a plan that would get Fakhriya into the Thalmor Embassy to determine what the Thalmor knew about Alduin's return. With some time to kill while they waited for Delphine to make her plans, Fakhriya and Jenassa traveled to Windhelm to visit Jenassa's brother, Turseth.

As the imposing city gates of Windhelm closed behind them, Fakhriya and Jenassa found themselves facing an inn constructed of stone and wood in the classic architectural style of the Nords. A fire blazing in a huge brazier in front of the inn offered the inviting promise of a warm and comfortable respite after what would have undoubtedly been a long, cold journey for most visitors to the oldest human settlement in Skyrim.

"So where does your brother live?" Fakhriya asked.

"I don't know," Jenassa responded. "When I left Windhelm for good my brother was rotting in the city jail. For all I know, he may be there now. But if he is out, I know where we will eventually find him."

Jenassa led Fakhriya east to a residential area that boasted a small courtyard. The courtyard tapered in its northeast corner to a narrow street that led past the entrance to Windhelm's dockyard.

As Jenassa skirted past some barrels stacked near the doorway to the docks, she suddenly staggered. Someone had slammed into her shoulder. She turned to face a Windhelm city guard who stood menacingly with his hand on the hilt of his weapon.

"You disrespect the law, you disrespect me," he growled as a warning. Jenassa let her gaze fall to the ground.

"That goes for you, too, Redguard," the guard took his hand off his weapon to point at Fakhriya so there would be no mistake that he was talking to her. "Stay out of trouble."

Fakhriya was too stunned by the exchange to even react. The city guard continued on his way as if nothing had happened. Jenassa resumed her course past the dock entrance without a word. Fakhriya watched the guard turn the corner and then followed Jenassa.

Further east the street whittled down to little more than a tight alley and then opened to a small landing atop a steep staircase that continued in a northerly direction in front of a dilapidated general goods store labeled as Sadri's Used Wares.

This poor district of the city, once known as the Snow Quarter, was disparagingly renamed the Gray Quarter by the Nords of the city in reaction to the influx of gray skinned Dunmer who fled Morrowind in the aftermath of the Red Mountain eruption early in the Fourth Era. The Dunmer remained the dominate population of Windhelm's crowded slum.

Starting at Sadri's Used Wares, the staircase, which was largely in disrepair, led past several residences that seemed to house multiple families. Halfway down the length of the staircase three stout columns and a tattered banner alerted passers-by to an opening in the stone façade that expanded into a porch large enough to accommodate several people. A wooden door hung awkwardly in its frame on the deep set stone wall at the back of the porch. The smell of cooking meat invited the curious to stop in. Despite being located in the middle of the street, the tavern was named in the Dunmeri fashion: New Gnisis Cornerclub.

It was a little past midday when Jenassa and Fakhriya arrived at the tavern. The sole customer was an old Dunmeri man sitting at the bar with his back to the door who barely looked up from his tankard when the women walked in. A middle aged looking man was wiping down glasses behind the bar. A slightly younger looking man was sweeping the floor near some tables in the corner.

"Sit anywhere you'd like, ladies," the man behind the bar said. "I'll be with you in a second."

"Amberys, how are you?" Jenassa asked.

Amberys looked up from the glasses he was putting away beneath the counter and smiled broadly as he realized who was speaking.

"Jenassa," Amberys cried as he came around the counter. He embraced Jenassa and then took her by the hand to lead her to the bar. "What are you doing in this sewer of a town? Come and sit at the bar and tell me what's been going on. Malthyr, will you look at who it is? It's Jenassa."

Malthyr stopped sweeping and smiled.

"Jenassa, it's good to see you again. It's been a long time. Who's your friend?"

Malthyr let the broom drag behind him as he closed the distance between himself and Fakhriya and extended his hand. Fakhriya accepted his handshake and gave her name. Malthyr offered her a seat at the bar and then joined Amberys behind the bar so they all could talk. As they chatted, Amberys opened a round of ales.

"Now, Fakhriya, we get a lot of sailors from Hammerfell in here," Amberys said after a while, "and I have to tell you, you don't sound like you're from Hammerfell."

"I'm not," Fakhriya replied. "My father's family is from Sentinel, but I grew up in Bruma."

"You're from Cyrodiil. Oh, ok," Amberys nodded as he spoke. "So your mother's an Imperial, then?"

"No, my mother's also a Redguard," Fakhriya said. "Her family's been in Skyrim a long time. In Falkreath."

"Speaking of family," Jenassa interjected, "how is Turseth? Does he still come around?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm sure he'll be in later tonight," Amberys replied. "If he's managed to scrape up a few septims, he's likely to spend them here."

The four continued talking throughout the afternoon. Janessa talked about her days living in Whiterun after she left Windhelm. Fakhriya talked about her studies at the Bard's College in Solitude. The two women showed off their matching matrimonial rings and basked in belated congratulations and well wishes. Malthyr talked about recent events in the Gray Quarter and the difficulties he had bringing the neighborhood's concerns to the Jarl. Talk of the Jarl inevitably led to talk of Skyrim's civil war.

"So, Fakhriya, I don't mean to put you on the spot," Malthyr started, "but you're a Redguard from Cyrodiil living in Skyrim. You must have some conflicting feelings about the war."

"I do sometimes," Fakhriya said. "I mean, of course, I can't get behind the whole 'Skyrim for Nords' thing, but I do think the Stormcloaks raise some legitimate concerns. Like Talos worship. There are a lot of Nords in Bruma, so I know how important Talos is in their tradition. I mean, for myself, I was brought up to believe in eight Divines, but I'm sure I've heard my parents say 'by the Nines' more than once. Tiber Septim was undeniably a great man and worshipping him as Talos is an important part of the Nords' culture and the Empire's culture. I don't think anyone should be told what gods they can or cannot believe in."

Fakhriya stopped for a moment to drink some ale. She wouldn't have exactly called herself pro-Stormcloak, but she feared that the New Gnisis Cornerclub might not be the best place to voice even the remotest support for their cause. No one spoke – or her hit her in the face with a bottle – so she continued.

"And, you know, Hammerfell stood alone for five years against the Aldmeri Dominion after the Emperor signed the White-Gold Concordant. I think Titus Mede was too quick to give up the coast of Hammerfell and end the war. If Hammerfell, Cyrodiil, High Rock and Skyrim had stood together, I think none of what's going on right now would have happened. I love Cyrodiil and I love the Empire, but Titus II signed that White-Gold Concordant after he achieved a victory. He should have kept fighting."

"You're too young to remember the Great War, aren't you?" Malthyr asked after considering Fakhriya's words for a few moments.

"I was born after Cyrodiil pulled out."

"Well, I don't know if Titus II did the right thing," Malthyr said, "but I can tell you that the fighting was brutal. I guess Titus figured it was better to accept terms he didn't like with a sword in his hand instead of at his throat. But when Titus signed that concordant there were a lot of people in the Empire – even here in Skyrim – who were ready for peace at just about any price."

"And we all were enjoying that peace, too," Amberys interjected. He nodded for emphasis vaguely in the direction of the Palace of the Kings as he continued, "until the High Lord of His Mightiness over there got the idea that he was the second coming of Ysgramor."

Amberys's assertion hung in the air as everyone considered the conflicting opinions that had just been discussed.

"The father was bad enough," Amberys muttered to himself after a moment of silence. "But the son? He's even worse."

As the late afternoon wore into the early evening, the New Gnisis Cornerclub started to fill with patrons. Fakhriya struck up a conversation with a Dunmeri bard who was clearing a corner so she would have space to play. Jenassa maintained a post at a highly visible corner of the bar. Despite her vigilance in observing the door, she was surprised by a man who tentatively approached her from behind.

"Jenassa?" The man asked. Jenassa turned. Her face lit up as she realized who it was.

"Turseth! I've been waiting all day for you." Jenassa stood up and hugged her younger brother. "Grab a table for us while you still can. I'll get us a couple of ales."

"The adventuring life looks like it's been good for you, Jenassa," Turseth said as his sister sat down. "Have you bought the castle of your dreams yet?"

"I've settled for home in Whiterun. Fakhriya and I do all right for ourselves," Jenassa said as she showed Turseth her matrimonial ring. "How about you? What are you doing for work these days?"

"Well, there isn't really a lot of work in Windhelm right now. Not for a Dark Elf, anyway," Turseth said. "I have a buddy, though. He says he can get me a job laying cobblestone on the bridge. The pay won't be great, but I'll get to be outdoors, working with my hands."

"That job is starting soon?" Jenassa asked.

"No, no. You can't do that kind of work until it warms up a little. I'm thinking Rain's Hand, maybe Second Seed. You know, springtime," Turseth explained.

"It's Morning Star," Jenassa pointed out. "What are you doing for money now?"

"I'm relying on the kindness of strangers," Turseth said with a smirk.

Jenassa frowned. She knew that relying on the kindness of strangers meant that Turseth was pickpocketing. As she recalled, he had never been especially good at that. Before Jenassa could think of how to respond, Fakhriya broke the mood by taking a seat at the table.

"I understand you're family," Turseth said after Fakhriya introduced herself to him. He held out his hand.

"Give me 20 septims," he demanded. Before Fakhriya could react, he laughed.

"I'm just kidding," he said. Then he added after a moment: "Unless you're going to give it to me."

"How about I buy the next round instead?" Fakhriya offered.

The New Gnisis Cornerclub was the center of Dunmeri social life, not just for the inhabitants of the Gray Quarter, but also for the Dunmer who owned or worked farms outside of Windhelm's city walls. People came to drink and relax, but also to get news and gossip. The murder of a Nord woman in the city's Stone District had dominated most people's conversations for a few days. In the Gray Quarter, people were not concerned so much with the city guards' progress in solving the case as with the frequency that Dunmer shoppers and merchants in the Stone District's marketplace were questioned and harassed. At some tables, talk of the murder had been replaced with talk of a dragon that had attacked Kynesgrove. Some people speculated that Jarl Ulfric would have allowed the dragon to live atop the Palace of the Kings if the dragon had attacked anyone other than Nords. People often moved around from table to table to seek out information, to find their allies in the debates of the day and to mock the stupidity of the opposing viewpoint with like-minded friends.

Political resentments, social frustrations and alcohol are often a volatile combination. It was a rare night in the Cornerclub that an argument didn't get heated nearly to the point of blows.

Belyn Hlaalu, a successful farmer in town for mead or two, drew attention to his viewpoint when he suddenly cried out:

"All I'm saying is that the best way for us to win the Nords' respect is through hard work."

"The only way you will get a Nord to respect your gray ass is if you kick his snowy white one first!" shouted Turseth as he stood up. He looked willing to settle for kicking a gray ass tonight if a snowy white one wasn't around.

Malthyr, his broom ever ready to divide people who were getting out of hand, injected himself into their argument:

"Now that's where you're wrong," he joked as he tried to take a position between the two men. "If you knocked a Nord's teeth out of his mouth, he'd take the time to look down his nose at you before he bent to pick them up. As long as Ulfric and his clan sit in the Palace, most Nords figure they may have to pay their taxes, but they don't have to pay respect."

"That's what I'm saying," Turseth yelled at Malthyr, who Turseth took to be his ally in the argument. "Ulfric Stormcloak doesn't care about Dunmeri people. It's about time we made him care."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Belyn asked. "Are we supposed to burn the city to the ground? Is that going to solve our problems? Too many Dark Elves in Windhelm complain about how we are treated. What good does complaining do? Do some work. Be involved in the city. Make them respect you because they respect what you do."

"What?" Turseth shouted back. "Are you trying to say I don't work? I work my ass off and for nothing."

"By the Eights, brother," Jenassa shouted in response. "You haven't worked an honest day in your life. Why don't you sit down and shut up for once?" She took a more menacing posture than Malthyr as she also got between Turseth and Belyn.

"By the Eights? Really, sister? By the Eights?" Turseth mocked. "Maybe you've spent so much time among the Nords that you've forgotten who you are. You just leave whenever things don't go your way and then come back here like you're something special. You're still a Dark Elf, Jenassa, whether you think you are or not."

Fakhriya got in front of Jenassa to stop her from getting in Turseth's face. Malthyr put his arm around Belyn's shoulder to lead him away from the conflict. Turseth stormed off seething. He stopped short of the door, but made a show of punching the wall near the exit.

Fakhriya backed away from Jenassa and indicated with her hands that she should calm down. When Fakhriya got close enough to Turseth, she put her hands on his shoulders.

"Hey, come on," Fakhriya said to Turseth. "Nobody's going to do anything about Ulfric Stormcloak tonight. There's no point in getting all worked up."

Fakhriya led Turseth back to a table where Belyn would be out of his line of sight.

"Why don't we sit down over here? I think I can come up with enough septims for a couple Black-Briar Reserves. You wouldn't want to incur the wrath of Sanguine by turning down a good mead, would you?"

"What does a Redguard from Cyrodiil know about Sanguine?" Turseth asked as he allowed himself to be led away.

"I may know a thing or two," Fakhriya said. She thought back to the Sanguine Rose, a staff that stood in a weapon's rack in her house in Whiterun. She won the staff in a drinking contest against a man in Falkreath who turned out to be the daedric prince of debauchery. It took Fakhriya over two weeks undo all the damage that had been done all over the province of Skyrim as a result of what seemed to be a single night's bender. "I think Sanguine hangs out with my girl, Dibella."

As people who had gotten up from their seats to get out of the way of the fight returned to their tables, the Dunmeri bard played the opening notes of a popular song in the Gray District about an evil landlord who got his comeuppance when the Red Mountain exploded. Dunmeri songs, even songs that have happy, bouncy melodies, are often about struggle, defiance and revenge. As the crowd got drunker, the most requested songs became more morose and melancholy.

But there was one song that was very popular at the New Gnisis Cornerclub that would have been recognizable to the Nords who drank to their successes and sorrows in Candlehearth Hall, the inn at the city's entrance, although few of them would have agreed with the song's sentiment.

_Down with Ulfric, the killer of __k__ings._


	4. Chapter 4

Fakhriya and Jenassa got to the marketplace in the Stone District of Windhelm a little later than they had hoped they would, but that was often the price of a late night in a tavern. They needed to sell off a few items they had collected on their travels and replenish their supplies before they headed south to meet with Delphine.

After they finished their shopping for the day, Jenassa offered to take Fakhriya on a tour of the Valunstrad, the Avenue of Valor, before they headed back to Gray Quarter.

The Valunstrad was Windhelm's wealthiest and oldest neighborhood. Each of the single family homes of the city's most prominent citizens was as large as a Jarl's residence in some of Skyrim's smaller, less prosperous holds and boasted the sturdy wood and elaborate stonework for which the Nords were renowned. Many homes had fenced in stone patios and private gardens that struggled bravely against Eastmarch's unforgiving climate. As the Valunstrad continued east it narrowed into an alleyway that opened at its other end into a vast courtyard on the north side of the wall of memorials to the great kings of Windhelm that gave the Avenue of Valor its name.

Outside the courtyard where the Valunstrad bordered with the Stone District stood the Temple of Talos. Other cities in Skyrim, notably Whiterun, Riften, and Markarth, had temples or statues dedicated to Talos. The Nord dominated city of Bruma in Cyrodiil, Fakhriya's hometown, boasted the Great Chapel dedicated to the reverence of the hero-god. But Windhelm's Temple of Talos was distinct in that it was the only temple in all of Tamriel where Talos was actively, openly worshipped.

Although the ban against Talos worship had been lazily enforced by the Empire in most places, if it was enforced at all, in the months immediately after the end of the Great War, as a result of the Markarth Incident of 4E 176 the Aldmeri Dominion insisted on the Empire's strict compliance with that significant condition of the White-Gold Concordat.

In 4E 174 the Breton population of the Reach, the hold for which the city of Markarth was the capital, used the opportunity created by the turmoil of the Great War to declare itself independent of the Empire and to overthrow the local Nord ruling class. When the Great War ended the deposed Jarl of the Reach asked Solitude, the seat of Skyrim's High King, for support in returning the Reach to provincial control. A Nord militia, led by a young Ulfric Stormcloak, was dispatched to the Reach to reign in the wayward hold.

Ulfric's forces dealt swiftly and, according to some accounts, brutally with the rebellious Bretons and quickly regained control of the hold. As a condition of returning the Reach to the deposed Jarl, Ulfric demanded that Markarth allow free and open worship of Talos. The Jarl agreed to Ulfric's terms, but when the Aldmeri Dominion learned of the conditions Ulfric had imposed, the Thalmor insisted that the Empire intervene. The Empire demanded strict compliance with the ban against Talos worship in all Imperial holds and Ulfric Stormcloak and his men were arrested. Ulfric's father, the Jarl of Eastmarch, died while Ulfric was imprisoned.

Upon his release, Ulfric returned to Windhelm, assumed the Jarlship left vacant by his father, and permitted the open worship of Talos in his hold. Until Ulfric killed High King Torygg in a challenge for the throne in Solitude, the incident that started Skyrim's civil war, Ulfric's defiance, though well known in Skyrim, seemed to mostly escape the attention of the Empire and the Thalmor.

Whereas the Temple of Talos stood on the southern side of the memorial wall of the Valunstrad, the Palace of the Kings, the administrative center of the hold and the private residence of the Jarl, dominated the courtyard on the northern side of the wall.

"You know I met him once," Fakhriya announced as she and Jenassa stood facing the entrance to the Palace of the Kings.

"Who?" Jenassa asked. "Ulfric Stormcloak? When did you meet Ulfric Stormcloak?"

"When I was in Helgen," Fakhriya replied. "I never told you this? He was in Helgen when the dragon attacked."

"It seems to me the story always went like this," Jenassa countered. "One. You almost got beheaded. And two. A dragon destroyed the city. Ulfric Stormcloak never came up."

"Well, I'm trying to brag now that I hang out with Jarls every day," Fakhriya said. "So now the story goes like this: One. I almost got beheaded. Two. Ulfric Stormcloak was there. Oh, and there may have been a dragon or something."

The two women chuckled.

"So what's he like? Did he say anything to you?" Jenassa asked.

"No. By the Eights, no, he didn't." Fakhriya smiled as she put the pieces together in her head. "He didn't say anything to me because he was gagged. We were in a prisoner caravan, like I told you before. There was a chatty Stormcloak talking about some juniper wine his girlfriend used to make sitting across from me. Ulfric sat to my right. He was gagged because the Imperials didn't want him to use a thu'um. Divines guide me, I didn't even realize that until now."

"I'll tell you this about Ulfric Stormcloak, though," Fakhriya continued. "I was as close to him then as I am to you now, and I looked him straight in the eye and I know that man thought he was going to die that day in Helgen. We all thought we were going to die."

"Ulfric stood directly in front of me when we were unloaded from the wagon," Fakhriya recalled. "The Imperials made a big show of announcing his name, and announcing his title and announcing his crimes, but when they sent him over to the chopping block, he strolled over there like he was going to look at samples of tapestries to remodel his private dining room. Ulfric Stormcloak was not afraid to die."

"Well, you seem to remember him so fondly," Jenassa joked. "Since we're in the neighborhood, do you want to visit your best friend?"

"Oh, yeah, right," Fakhriya scoffed. She spoke in the direction of the palace as if someone were standing in front of her.

"Oh, Ullie, it's so nice to see you again," she said in a voice mimicking high society women. "You look well. I brought wine for the table." Fakhriya pecked the air as she continued: "Oh, kiss. Kiss. How are the wife and kids?"

"Wife and kids?" Jenassa asked as she laughed. "Is he even married?"

"Oh, I don't know," Fakhriya replied. Her face lit up as she realized that Jenassa had fed her the next joke. "Why? Would you like me to introduce you? Maybe we could go back to the marketplace to find an Amulet of Mara first?"

The two women laughed a little louder.

"Yeah, that would be a union blessed by the Divines," Jenassa said. She put her right hand on Fakhriya's left cheek.

"Oh, Ulfric," Jenassa said in an overly dramatic, breathless voice, "Your eyes. They are like two limpid pools. So icy. So blue. How I swoon when I gaze upon them."

This time the women laughed loudly enough that a city guard on her rounds turned her head to look at them. Jenassa met the guard's gaze, but where the guard seemed to dismiss the distraction, Jenassa continued to stare as the guard walked away.

Jenassa took Fakhriya lightly by the arm.

"Come on," Jenassa said. "Let's get out of here before we get arrested for lollygagging."

Fakhriya and Jenassa stayed in Windhelm a few days longer. Fewer people came out to the Cornerclub during that time. Another Nord woman had been murdered and the city guard had become more aggressive in their questioning of people in the Stone District during the day and in most areas of the city after dark. Few Dunmer ventured outdoors any more often than they had to.

Turseth, however, remained a regular fixture at the Cornerclub. He and Jenassa managed on a nightly basis to find new ways to hurt each other with old arguments and resentments.

Jenassa seemed particularly anxious to go on the morning the two women were suiting up to leave Windhelm. As she was leaving, Fakhriya waved goodbye to Malthyr, who was sweeping at his regular post, and opened the door of the New Gnisis Cornerclub to the cold morning air. She was surprised to notice that Jenassa wasn't behind her as she stepped outside.

"Malthyr, I want you to do something for me," Jenassa said as she approached him. She started to fumble with a coin purse. "Please take this. I know Turseth is going to end up getting arrested again. Someone will have to pay his bounty. Well, wait, you'll need more if he - oh, send me to Oblivion, hold on."

Janessa dropped the coin purse onto a table, let her satchel fall to floor, took off the malachite helmet she was wearing and dropped it with a thud and then slumped into a chair. She started to count out a few coins before she pushed the purse and the loose coins across the table.

"Just take the whole forsaken thing," she said as she abruptly stood up and backed herself away from the table.

Malthyr picked up the few coins that had fallen to the floor.

"I can't take all this money, Jenassa," Malthyr said as he added the fallen coins to the loose pile on the table.

"I trust you, Malthyr," Jenassa said. "There's probably 100, maybe 120 septims in there. I'm sure my stupid brother isn't the only Dark Elf in Windhelm who finds his back against the wall from time to time. Take care of Turseth first, but otherwise, give the money to whoever you think needs it until it runs out."

Jenassa collected her gear and brusquely walked out the door before either Malthyr or Fakhriya, who had been standing just inside the doorway, could react. Fakhriya went to the table to retrieve Jenassa's forgotten helmet.

"Thank you for everything, Malthyr. It was a pleasure to meet you," Fakhriya said.

"Azura's wisdom shine on you both," Malthyr said as he collected the loose coins and returned them to the purse. He offered the purse to Fakhriya.

"No. Keep it," Fakhriya said. With a wave she walked out the door of the cornerclub.

Fakhriya stepped into the street and started the climb to Sadri's Used Wares. Jenassa was pacing in front of the store.

"You forgot this," Fakhriya said as she offered Jenassa her helmet.

"I know," Jenassa said as she accepted the helmet and planted it firmly on her head. "You left the money, right?"

"Yeah," Fakhriya said.

"Good."

Jenassa maintained a brisk pace as she navigated Windhelm's narrow streets. Fakhriya struggled to keep up, but matched Jenassa's pace when the road widened near the city gates.

"Are you OK?" Fakhriya asked.

"I'm fine," Jenassa muttered. She looked away from Fakhriya.

"I just hate this city."


	5. Chapter 5

After Fakhriya revealed herself to be Dragonborn in Kynesgrove, Delphine, a Blade who had been in hiding in Skyrim since the Great War, instructed Fakhriya to return to Riverwood where she would get instructions to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy to learn if the Thalmor had been in some way responsible for the return of Alduin, the World Eater. Fakhriya traveled with Jenassa from Windhelm to Whiterun and then to Riverwood. Delphine promptly sent the women to Solitude with instructions to meet a Wood Elf there.

There was a nip in the air if she stood still for too long, but Fakhriya was enjoying the warmth of the sun on a bright First Seed afternoon in Solitude. She had only recently graduated from the Bard's College, so Fakhriya was still a recognizable figure among the merchants who sold specialty items in the open air market in the shadow of Castle Dour. She was particularly pleased to get herself a couple of bottles of locally made spiced wine. Of all the things Fakhriya missed whenever she left Solitude for long, she missed the spiced wine the most.

It was still several hours before sundown when Fakhriya returned to the Winking Skeever, the inn located just inside Solitude's city gates. She inhaled deeply to enjoy the light smell of lavender at the entrance followed by the warm aroma of freshly baked bread as she moved towards the bar directly opposite the door.

"I see you've had quite a successful day," said Corpulus Vinius, the inn's proprietor, as Fakhriya passed him. She stopped and smiled.

"I have plenty of spiced wine," Fakhriya said as she held up her basket for the Imperial innkeeper to see. "I hope you have the cheese and bread I need to go with it."

"I have a goat's milk cheese flavored with just a hint of honey that I think you will love," Corpulus offered. "It's made right here in Katla's Farm. They started raising bees there a few summers ago. I wouldn't recommend it with your spiced wine, though. You might consider a bright, mild ale to accompany the cheese. For your wine, I have a winter sausage I'm sure you'll enjoy. When you come down for your supper, I will include a few samples and you can let me know what you think."

"Thank you. I'm looking forward to those samples," Fakhriya said as she walked away.

The Winking Skeever was the largest inn in the province of Skyrim. Solitude was not only a major port city, but also the seat of the Jarl of Haafingar and the High King of Skyrim. Since the days of Tiber Septim the two offices had been occupied by the same person, but historically that hadn't always been the case. The Empire's presence in Skyrim was situated in Castle Dour. The walls of the fortress divided the merchant district at the southwestern end of the city from the residential district that terminated at the Blue Palace. With a constant influx of people from all over the Empire, Solitude was a city where a person who didn't want to be found could get lost.

In the more intimate corners of the Winking Skeever was where those lost people found the each other when they needed to be found.

Fakhriya noticed a fidgety Bosmer sitting alone at a dimly lit table in an area off the bar where the bread oven blazed. There were only a few tables in that area, which mostly served as overflow seating during the Winking Skeever's peak service times. Most people seemed to prefer sitting in the bigger, brightly lit common room on the opposite side of the inn. The Bosmer had made himself sort of conspicuous in his attempt not to be. Fakhriya was pretty sure he was her contact.

"Malborn, right?" Fakhriya asked softly as she took a seat opposite the Bosmer. "Delphine sent me." She placed a large bag as far under the table as she could. Fakhriya had gone up to her room to collect the things in the bag and to change her clothes before she met Malborn. The hooded cloak she wore over a simple peasant's dress was not much in the way of a disguise, but if it meant someone she knew who happened to be in the tavern didn't notice her until after she concluded her business with the Bosmer, it was disguise enough.

"Lady?" Malborn started to protest as Fakhriya sat down, but he stopped short as he realized that she was the contact he was waiting to meet.

"Delphine picked you?" Malborn asked as he sized Fakhriya up. "You're not what I expected at all."

"Well, she picked me," Fakhriya replied flatly.

If the Bosmer actually reconsidered his role in Delphine's scheme in the next few moments, a deep sigh suggested that he had resolved to go through with it. He glanced around the room quickly and then leaned across the table so he wouldn't have to speak much above a whisper.

"You are to give me whatever you think you will need to complete your objective in the Embassy. I will keep your things safe and I will make sure they are available to you when you need them," Malborn shot a look in the direction of the bar in reaction to a hearty laugh shared by the innkeeper and a patron. "We will not meet again and you will not be able to bring anything else into the Embassy with you. The Thalmor take security very seriously."

Malborn gave the bag under the table a nudge.

"Is that everything you intend to bring?"

Fakhriya nodded.

"You're certain?"

Fakhriya nodded again.

"Very good," Malborn said. "I will see to it that Delphine learns that we have made contact. You are to meet her at the stables at Katla's Farm as soon as possible. Starting tomorrow, she will wait for you from midday until sundown, but of course, the sooner she meets with you, the less likely it is that she will attract any unwanted attention. She will give you further instructions."

The Bosmer sat back in his chair and looked around the room one last time. He reached under the table for the bag and then stood.

"Divines guide you," he said softly as he slung the bag over his shoulder and headed for the door.

The next day was cloudy, but Fakhriya was happy about it. She wore the same hooded cloak she had worn when she met Malborn the afternoon before. On a sunny day the cloak might have seemed unusual, but on a day when rain seemed likely, a hood appeared to be a prudent precaution. Fakhriya had worked as a farmhand at Katla's Farm the summer before she started her first classes at the Bard's College. It had been a couple of years since she had been back down there, but as with her meeting with Malborn at the Winking Skeever, Fakhriya hoped the hood would prevent an innocent friend's interference with delicate plans.

No one appeared to be at the stables as Fakhriya approached. She was startled when Delphine suddenly emerged from an empty horse stall.

"Sorry," Delphine said as she brushed hay off herself. "I wasn't sure it was you. You weren't followed, were you?"

"No," Fakhriya said. It was a lie. She wasn't sure if she had been followed or not. It hadn't occurred to her to check.

"Good," Delphine replied. She rummaged through her things and produced two envelopes. "This voucher will secure a carriage for your trip to the Embassy and here is your invitation to the party. Don't lose it and make sure you remember to bring it with you. If you forget it, our plan is dead at the door."

Fakhriya took the voucher and the invitation. The invitation was addressed to Fakhriya, Thane of Whiterun. She smiled. That small detail, Fakhriya's title, would do much to bolster her credibility. The invitation was for the First Planting Reception.

First Planting was a holiday celebrated in most Tamrielic provinces as a day of good will and renewal. Held on the seventh of First Seed even in regions where the ground would still likely be frozen, the holiday was marked by the real or symbolic sowing of seeds. In keeping with the symbolism of new crops in the ground, people traditionally made efforts to settle their debts or differences and vowed to give their work and relationships fresh starts in the coming year.

The Thalmor Embassy used the holiday as an opportunity to promote good will with the noble and wealthy of Skyrim by hosting the first major event of the social calendar. Given the Embassy's proximity to Solitude, it was customary for the High King and members of his court to be in attendance as well as Imperial dignitaries from Castle Dour. The opportunity to mingle with Skyrim's power elite attracted merchants, thanes, and jarls from all over the province.

The Bard's College customarily provided entertainment for the Reception. Fakhriya had not been selected to play the year she had been eligible.

"You'll need this as well," Delphine said as she handed Fakhriya a bag. It contained a sheer green sheath dress. The dress was well constructed and made of light, expensive material, but it left little to the imagination. There should have been a lightweight caraco to go with the dress, but there didn't seem to be one in the bag. Further down there was a pair of white strappy sandals. At the bottom of the bag was a brown fox fur coat. Fakhriya laughed.

"You don't expect me to wear this to the Reception, do you?"

"Yes, I expect you to wear that to the Reception," Delphine replied sarcastically. "You can't go to the Thalmor Embassy dressed like a milk maid."

"I also can't go to the Thalmor Embassy dressed like I've never owned a mirror," Fakhriya retorted. "You do realize you've given me _most_ of a summer dress and a winter coat. This is a spring festival. Here in Skyrim, I can make the coat work, but this dress is ridiculous. You want me to look like I belong there, right?"

Delphine shifted her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

"Yes, I want you to look like you belong there. I thought the dress was pretty."

"It is pretty, but frankly, I can't imagine how you got a hold of it. I don't think it ever gets warm enough in Skyrim to wear a dress like this." Fakhriya could see that Delphine was embarrassed.

"Look, I'll take care of the outfit," Fakhriya offered. "Is my contact in the Embassy expecting me to wear green?"

"Your contact is Malborn, the Bosmer you met yesterday. He'll recognize you regardless of what you wear," Delphine replied.

With less than a week before the Reception, it was no easy - or inexpensive - feat to procure the help of a seamstress or a hairdresser. There also wasn't enough time to commission a brand new outfit, but Fakhriya was able to leverage the relationship the Bard's College had with the local fashion community to have an outfit she had in storage reworked for the Reception. Luckily the dress Delphine had provided was a recognizable piece from one of Imperial City's finer fashion houses. Even without the caraco, the dress pulled a good price. Fakhriya hated to let the dress go, but the proceeds were enough to pay for the last minute alterations she needed.

The results were makeshift, but not entirely unfashionable. The ensemble started with a cream colored long sleeved V neck dress with a fitted waist that opened into an A-line bottom that nearly reached the floor. The V neck was deep and broad enough to be daring, but not scandalous. A forest green jacket that cinched at the waist before opening at the hips and extending past the knee with mottled fox fur trim at the sleeves and the collar was a little more wintry than Fakhriya would have preferred, but the cotton/wool blend was light enough to wear indoors while still providing a necessary layer of warmth for the carriage ride. A pair of low cut leather boots were trimmed above the ankle in the same fox fur as the jacket. Fakhriya decided to keep the overcoat Delphine provided and she purchased a pair of white gloves to wear with it. She arranged to have a corsage of hearty yellow mountain flowers made and arranged to meet with a hairdresser who would pull Fakhriya's hair back and work a series of similar flowers and human hair extensions into a broad braid that would rest halfway down Fakhriya's back. Fakhriya reasoned in considering the final look that appearing a little rugged was probably more in line with her status as a recently named thane in a Nord hold even if her more refined Imperial sensibilities cringed a bit at the final result.

The evening of the reception was cold and blustery, although the flurrying snow didn't begin to fall until Fakhriya's carriage reached the gate of the Thalmor Embassy. From the number of carriages already parked just inside the gate it was clear that many of the invited guests had already arrived.

When Fakhriya disembarked, she was surprised to be confronted by a middle aged Redguard man wearing the clothes of a well-to-do merchant but no overcoat sitting on a stone planter near the entrance of the embassy building.

"Are you here for this ridiculous thing, too?" the man slurred. "You're the prettiest little thing I've seen come by this way in quite a while. Aren't you too young for a party as boring as this one? You should be out doing something more exciting than this."

"Aren't you coming inside?" Fakhriya asked as she took the man by the arm to lead him. The man pulled his arm back violently.

"I don't need any help," he insisted. "There's no point in going inside any sooner than I have to." The man showed her a bottle a whiskey he had been holding between his legs. It was nearly empty.

"I'll be in soon enough, Little Missy. Don't you worry about a thing."

"Fair enough," Fakhriya said as she backed away from him. "I'll see you later."

"Oh, you will," the man said as he grabbed hold of the planter to keep from falling off.

At the base of a staircase that led up to the Reception stood an imposing Thalmor soldier who asked to see Fakhriya's invitation.

"Fakhriya, Thane of Whiterun," the Thalmor read.

"Yes," Fakhriya responded even though she wasn't sure there had been a question.

The soldier looked her over and looked again at the invitation. He turned the invitation around to look at the back and then handed it to Fakhriya.

"You may enter this way," the soldier said as he indicated the adjacent staircase with an extended arm. "The Thalmor Embassy extends its hospitality to you. Please enjoy the reception."

About halfway up the short staircase Fakhriya released a deep sigh of relief. She was pleased to have passed the first hurdle.


	6. Chapter 6

Delphine's plan to get Fakhriya into the Thalmor Embassy to learn what the Thalmor knew about the return of Alduin had been set into motion. Fakhriya had gotten past the first checkpoint and was about to join the First Planting Reception.

"May I take your coat, Thane?" asked a Bosmer woman as the entryway door shut out the cold evening air.

"Yes, please," Fakhriya replied as she allowed the woman to help her remove her arms from the overcoat's sleeves. Fakhriya was careful to surrender both gloves to the woman and to retain the invitation.

"If it pleases you, Thane, I can take that for you," the woman said when she noticed Fakhriya holding the envelope. "You will have no further need for it."

"Thank you," Fakhriya said as she surrendered the invitation. The Bosmer woman indicated that Fakhriya should continue down the hall to the reception room.

Fakhriya ran her hands over her head to flatten any errant strands of hair and adjusted the jacket to smooth the fit as she made her way along the broad carpeted hall. The Embassy was warmer than she had expected. Fakhriya briefly considered that Delphine might have been correct in choosing a lighter dress for the reception, but as she became acclimated to the warmth of the hall, she detected a chill close to the floor and was thankful that she had dressed as she had.

Where the hall opened into the reception room Fakhriya noticed her contact, Malborn, working the bar in an alcove at the right end of the room. She thought that it would be nice to have a mead in any case and that getting a drink would provide an opportunity for her to let Malborn see that she had arrived.

No sooner had Fakhriya worked through that thought than she was confronted by a tall, thin Altmer woman.

"Welcome," said the Altmer in a tone that was cold, if polite. "I don't believe we've met. I am Elenwen, the Thalmor Ambassador to Skyrim. And you are?"

"Fakhriya, Thane of Whiterun. Pleased to meet you." Fakhriya moved to get around the Ambassador and end the conversation, but the Ambassador blocked her path.

"Ah, yes. I remember your name from the guest list. Please tell me more about yourself. I'm interested to know how a Redguard finds herself the Thane of a Nord hold."

"Madame Ambassador," Malborn called out. "I'm so sorry to interrupt."

"Yes, Malborn. What is it?" Elenwen asked with a steely tone.

"It's just that we've run out of the Alto wine," Malborn's voice wavered as he continued, "Do I have your permission to uncork the Arenthia red?"

"Of course," Elenwen replied. "I've told you before not to bother me with such trifles."

Elenwen returned her gaze to Fakhriya, but before Fakhriya could think of something to say a commotion at the door diverted Elenwen's attention.

"Please, help yourself to some wine," Elenwen said offhandedly as she left Fakhriya to investigate the matter at the door.

Fakhriya took the opportunity to move into the reception area. A pretty Nord woman was playing a lute in the opposite corner. She was no one Fakhriya knew. Near the bard stood several people, mostly Nords, who were talking loudly and waving wine glasses recklessly. Fakhriya thought she recognized Erikur, a Thane of Solitude, among them. She looked around the room to see if Jarl Elisif was in attendance, but if she was, Fakhriya did not see her.

There were several other groups of people, seemingly divided by class, standing around the room. Two Thalmor soldiers watched over the crowd, one at the far end of the reception area opposite the bard and the other at the corner where the entry hall met the reception room. Fakhriya noticed Elenwen marching up the hall at a brisk pace and the Redguard man Fakhriya had met earlier staggering up the hall behind her. The Bosmer woman at the door waved her hands in the direction of the Redguard man as she ardently explained something to a third soldier who nodded repeatedly. To avoid renewing Elenwen's interest in her, Fakhriya moved to the bar to get out of the Altmer's path.

"What can I get for you, Thane?" Malborn asked brightly as Fakhriya approached the bar. He continued in a softer, shakier voice, "You made it in. Good. As soon as you distract the guards, I'll open this door and we can get you on your way. Let's hope we can both live through this day."

Fakhriya took note of the wooden door behind the bar. Moving her gaze around the room, Fakhriya tried to avoid making eye contact with the guard who stood nearby as she struggled to come up with a suitable distraction. She was suddenly aware of a snifter placed near her at the bar.

"The finest Colovian brandy, Thane. Is there anything else I can get for you?" Malborn asked.

"No, that will be all, thank you," Fakhriya responded as she took the snifter and moved away from the bar. She brought the snifter to her nose. The brandy had the faint smell of hazelnuts and apricots with just the suggestion of cocoa. She took a sip. The cocoa was more apparent in the taste along with a rich, smooth spiciness. This was a finer brandy than she had ever had before.

As the taste of the brandy dissipated Fakhriya noticed the Redguard man looking forlorn as he sat alone on a bench. She saw he was empty handed.

"You look like you could use a friend," Fakhriya said to the Redguard man as she approached him. He looked up with an annoyed expression, but then smiled.

"Hey, there's my Little Missy," he said. "Why don't you sit on my lap and tell me all about how you're enjoying this party?"

"I thought you looked like you could use a drink," Fakhriya said as she moved close enough to hand the man the snifter without getting too close.

"Little Missy, you bring joy to an old man's heart," the man said as he accepted the glass.

"I wondered if you could do a little something for me," Fakhriya said.

"With a pretty girl, there's always a catch, isn't there?" the Redguard said. He took a sip of the brandy. "Oh, this is nice. For this, I'd give you the moons and stars."

"I would settle for a little excitement," Fakhriya said. "Do you suppose you could ruffle the feathers of some of these stiff birds?"

"You are a troublemaker, aren't you?" the man said with a sly grin. With a little effort he got to his feet, took a more substantial taste of the brandy and pointed himself in the direction of his chosen targets. "You just stand back, Little Missy. I'll get you some excitement."

"Do you know what your problem is?" the Redguard yelled in the general direction of several groups of people. Someone among them took the bait and the Redguard focused his attention on that individual.

As the Redguard had moved forward, Fakhriya stepped backwards towards the bar. When the soldier near the hall moved towards the center of the increasingly heated squabble, Fakhriya dashed to the door where Malborn was waiting.

"Let's go, let's go," Malborn hissed. "Hurry, before anyone notices us."

Fakhriya moved past Malborn and stood near a second wooden door while Malborn leaned against the door they had just entered to close it. He was already panting nervously from the excitement.

"So far, so good. Let's hope that nobody saw us slip out. We need to pass through the kitchen. Your gear is hidden in the larder," Malborn explained as he moved to the second door.

"Just stay close and let me do any talking, got it?" Malborn said. Fakhriya nodded. Malborn put his hand on the lever of the door and took a deep breath before opening it.

"Follow me," he said as the door swung open.

The kitchen was spacious and much hotter than the reception area. The smell of garlic and frost mirriam dominated the room. Fakhriya didn't notice the Khajit woman behind a large prepping table until she spoke.

"Who comes, Malborn?" the Khajit hissed as she started to come around the table. "You know I don't like strange smells in my kitchen."

"A guest, feeling ill," Malborn offered. "Leave the poor wretch be."

"A guest?" the Khajit stopped where she was. "In the kitchens? You know this is against the rules." The Khajit looked around nervously and slowly retreated behind the table.

"Rules, is it, Tsavani?" Malborn countered with a sudden boldness. "I didn't realize eating Moon Sugar was permitted. Perhaps I should ask the Ambassador..."

The Khajit hissed and swatted at the air as she turned her back to Malborn and the guest to busy herself with a pot that had reached a boil.

"Get out of here," the Khajit said. "I saw nothing."

Malborn led Fakhriya past some crates and barrels to a storeroom. He unlocked the door and held it open as he encouraged Fakhriya to step inside. There were several shelves of wine and mead on the back wall of the dimly lit room. Against the length of the wall to Fakhriya's left were several more stacked crates and free standing barrels. To Fakhriya's right there was a small table, another couple of barrels, and a closed door. On the floor in front of the beverage shelves there was a wooden chest with metallic fittings.

"Your gear is in that chest," Malborn said. "I'll lock the door behind you. If that door is unlocked the patrols might notice something is wrong."

Fakhriya opened the chest. She fasten a small satchel containing a couple of potions around her waist and draped an empty messenger bag over one shoulder and across her chest. She then retrieved an ebony sword, an ebony bow and a quiver containing glass and elven arrows.

"Hurry it up," Malborn said impatiently. "If someone misses me at the party, we're both dead."

"Wait a second," Fakhriya said just as impatiently. She turned to stand with her back to the door that she intended to exit. She held her cupped hands in front of her chest and concentrated until she could see a blue light hovering between her hands. With a snapping motion in her wrists she cast an armor spell on herself. The room was momentarily bright with an electric blue glow and then faded back to darkness.

"I'm ready," Fakhriya said. She exited from the door behind her into a well lit hallway appointed with ornate tables at the entrances to several rooms, two on the left side and one on the right. She crouched down and heard Malborn lock the door behind her.

She tiptoed slowly up the hallway and took a position between a table and a wooden door that opened into the hall. Behind the door she heard two men talking about newly arrived mages from Alinor and the possibility of dragon attacks at the Embassy. Fakhriya struggled to recall what Delphine had told her about the layout of the Embassy building. She thought Delphine had said that she would have to exit the Embassy building from the private quarters and get across the grounds to the Ambassador's residence. Fakhriya cursed her luck. The men were between her and the exit to the Embassy grounds.

Fakhriya was snapped out of her thoughts when the men laughed.

"Well," one of the men said as Fakhriya heard a tankard make contact with a table, "we'd better get back to our rounds."

Fakhriya waited a few moments. When no one came out the door where she was hiding, she peered around it. The man who met her gaze looked as surprised to see her as she was to see him. Before he could finish the exclamation he started Fakhriya swung her body around the door so that she was in the doorway, nocked an arrow and fired it into the man's throat. The Altmer fell to his knees and brought his hands to his neck. Despite his wound, he tried to cry out. Fakhriya fired a second arrow into the soldier to silence him.

"What's going on?" Fakhriya heard from another room. "Is someone there?"

Fakhriya quickly retreated to her earlier hiding spot. She heard rushing footsteps, a curse as the person who entered the room undoubtedly discovered the body on the floor and then the renewed sound of footsteps running towards the door where she was hiding.

"Don't think I won't find you," the Altmer on the other side of the door said as he entered the hall. On the floor Fakhriya could see the shadow the soldier cast as he stood in the doorway. His right hand was momentarily in her line of sight as the Thalmor soldier gave a cursory glance in the direction of the storeroom door. She then heard his footsteps as he ran down the hall in the other direction, presumably to investigate the other two rooms.

Fakhriya took the opportunity to enter the room the soldier had just exited. There was a bar with several stools in front of it, several book shelves and directly in front of her two large, thick glass windows. The dead soldier's head pointed towards a staircase that went upstairs. Fakhriya saw a mage coming down the stairs before he saw her. A single arrow in his chest knocked the mage squarely onto his back. Fakhriya suddenly became aware that the other soldier would likely return soon. She turned in a complete circle once and better than halfway around a second time before she located a door that she hoped would take her outside.

The cold air took her breath away as Fakhriya closed the door behind her. She reflexively crouched down in the hopes of assessing her new situation without being seen herself. She realized there was a canopy of some sort over the doorway. A fence enclosed a snowy patch of land that may have served as a garden and defined a path along the perimeter fence. She didn't see anyone, but Fakhriya knew the compound was crawling with soldiers. Aware that her armor spell had long since expired, Fakhriya turned to face the door she had just exited with the hope that her body would block the flash of light that accompanied the casting of the spell.

It didn't.

Fakhriya turned around after casting the spell to see a soldier moving in her direction with his head cocked at an inquisitive angle. With the cover of the fence she was below his line of sight, but she would not enjoy that advantage for long. She pulled an arrow from the quiver and waited for the soldier to walk into her firing line. The first arrow was enough to stagger the soldier, but he remained on his feet and raised an alarm as he drew his weapon and ran towards her. A second arrow stopped him momentarily, but it took a third arrow, which Fakhriya didn't fire until the Thalmor was nearly close enough to strike her with the sword he had unsheathed, to bring him to the ground.

Fakhriya moved as quickly as she could in a crouching position along the pathway to the end of the fence line. She could hear other soldiers reacting to the cries of the Altmer she had just killed, but she didn't see anyone. When she reached the end of the fence line, the grounds opened in a broad expanse. On the opposite side stood the Ambassador's residence. Fakhriya put her bow on her back, stood upright and shouted.

"Wuld nah!"

Fakhriya came to a stop at the door of the second building. As she returned to her senses she realized she was standing in front of a mage who was casting a spell. She unsheathed her sword, but not before the wizard completed a shock spell. Jagged lines of visible lightening sparked around Fakhriya as she hacked at the mage. The smell of smoldering wool incited Fakhriya to swing the blade with as much force as she could manage as quickly as she could. The armor spell she had cast was protecting her against the brunt of the mage's assault for now, but if it dissipated before Fakhriya could gain the upper hand, she would be defenseless. The mage's spell abruptly ended as the man fell to his knees. Fakhriya stabbed the mage to finish him off.

As the mage fell to the ground Fakhriya sheathed her sword and slipped through the door into the Ambassador's residence.


	7. Chapter 7

Fakhriya has managed to slip away from the crowd attending the First Planting Reception at the Thalmor Embassy and has made her way to the Ambassador's private residence in another building on the Embassy grounds.

Fakhriya slipped through the door into the Ambassador's residence and immediately crouched. The tiled lobby, which looked like a smaller version of the reception area of the larger Embassy building she had just left, was well decorated, but cold and empty. As she pressed deeper into the lobby she heard two male voices from an adjoining room. The men were exchanging cross words, but they did not seem to be aware of her presence. Fakhriya skirted past the doorway where the voices originated and took cover in a secretary's work area. No sooner had Fakhriya hidden herself away than one of the men, who seemed to have been on the receiving end of a dressing down, left the room she had just sneaked past. Fakhriya could not see the doorway from her position behind the secretary's desk, but she thanked Mara for her benevolence when she realized the man's footsteps were moving away from her.

Fakhriya waited a moment. Once she was satisfied the other man was still in the room where she had last been aware of him, she started to look around the secretary's work area. Delphine had not been very specific about what she hoped Fakhriya might find. Fakhriya's instructions were to discover _if_ the Thalmor knew anything about the return of the dragons. Fakhriya figured if the Thalmor were responsible for Alduin's return, there might be some evidence to prove that, but if the opposite were true, she was less certain as to what evidence would prove the Thalmor were not involved.

When an inspection of the secretary's station proved fruitless, Fakhriya stood upright and moved back into the hallway to reconsider her options. She was startled when a surprised Thalmor mage joined her in the hall. Fakhriya unsheathed her sword and lunged at the mage before he could cast his first spell, but the first strike was not enough to bring the Altmer down. Fakhriya had the upper hand in the skirmish, but she was afraid that the Altmer's cries would attract unwanted attention. When the defeated Altmer slumped to the floor, Fakhriya heard the sharp clang of something metallic hitting the stone floor. The Thalmor had dropped a key. Fakhriya picked it up and sought both cover from possible interlopers and a new place to search for information. Then she noticed an office adjacent to the secretary's work station.

Unlike the crisp, austere lobby, the office had a rich, warm décor. The well positioned windows, which undoubtedly took full advantage of whatever light and warmth the afternoon sun provided, were frosted white at the edges in relief to the backdrop of the dark evening sky. Fakhriya noticed an open letter on the desk. The letter was a report from Elenwen to her superiors in Alinor about the dragon attack at Helgen. A brief skim revealed that the Thalmor had been as surprised by the attack as anyone else. Satisfied that she had successfully completed her mission, Fakhriya turned to leave.

As she turned Fakhriya noticed an open safe that contained some loose papers and two red folders. She took the top folder. Delphine's name was on it. Fakhriya laid the folder on Elenwen's desk and briefly rummaged through the contents. The Thalmor, apparently, did not know much about Delphine personally and knew even less about her whereabouts. Fakhriya figured Delphine would enjoy the advantage of knowing what the Thalmor knew about her, so Fakhriya stuffed the folder into her messenger bag along with Elenwen's report. The other red folder was much thicker than the one about Delphine. Fakhriya removed the folder from the safe and opened it on Elenwen's desk. She gasped when she saw what was written on the top page.

_Thalmor Dossier: Ulfric Stormcloak. Status: Asset._

Fakhriya immediately closed the folder. She was surprised to realize her hands were shaking as she picked up Ulfric's substantial file and forced it into the messenger bag. It made sense to Fakhriya that the Thalmor would have a dossier on Ulfric – the current civil war was certainly enough to draw the Thalmor's attention towards the rebellious Jarl – but that the Thalmor considered Ulfric an asset was as unsettling as it was confusing. Fakhriya had never paid too much attention to Skyrimic politics, but she thought Ulfric hated the Thalmor. Why would they consider him an asset?

Fakhriya's anxiety escalated as she considered her options for leaving now that she had recovered the information Delphine needed. When Fakhriya had arrived on the Embassy grounds to join the party, she had hoped that she would be able to leave the same way she had arrived: Wearing a warm coat as she sat in a reasonably comfortable carriage. After all the turmoil, Fakhriya was resigned to consider the second plan, which was based on sketchy evidence that there might be an exit under the Ambassador's residence. Delphine had indicated that she thought it might even be an emergency escape tunnel for Thalmor operatives, but she admitted to Fakhriya that it might be nothing more than an outflow tunnel for refuse – or sewage.

Fakhriya exited Elenwen's office, jogged past the secretary's station and took the first staircase she saw going down. At the bottom of the staircase Fakhriya saw storage shelves and a closed door. She proceeded down the remaining stairs more quietly. The door was locked.

Fakhriya smiled as she recalled the key she had taken from the fallen Thalmor mage.

The key fit smoothly into the lock and effortlessly turned. Fakhriya opened the door to a balcony. She looked over the edge of the railing into what appeared to be a stable. She froze where she stood when she heard a man suddenly cry out.

Below Fakhriya could see a Thalmor mage seated with his back to her at a makeshift desk. A Thalmor soldier spoke to the mage as she exited what appeared to be a horse stall. With metal bars around it. A prison cell?

It was only then that Fakhriya realized how horrible the room smelled: Straw. Sweat. Blood. Urine.

The soldier picked up some sort of metallic instrument from the mage's desk and returned to the cell. After a few moments a man cried out that he had already told the soldier everything he knew.

Fakhriya stumbled on a loose floorboard as she reacted to the man's scream. The mage looked up from his work and turned his head left and right. He then stood and turned around. Fakhriya crouched, but the mage saw her on the balcony. He raised his arms to start a spell. Fakhriya moved forward into the room and to her left against the back wall in the hopes of avoiding whatever the mage was casting. A ball of lightning struck the wall where Fakhriya had been.

Fakhriya noticed an alcove with a staircase going downstairs set further back from the edge of the balcony. Positioning herself at the doorway near the top of the stairs would definitely take her out of the mage's line of fire. Fakhriya took a moment to refresh her armor spell. She heard the soldier say something to the mage as the mage bounded up the stairs.

Fakhriya moved just inside the doorway to wait for the mage to reach the top of the staircase. She crouched to minimize the target she presented as she retrieved her bow and nocked an arrow in anticipation. The force of the arrow she drove into the mage's chest as he turned at the top of the staircase was enough to drive him into the back wall. The second arrow ended any further resistance from the mage.

No sooner had Fakhriya released the second arrow than the soldier came clamoring up the stairs. Fakhriya wasn't quick enough to fire a third arrow, so she dropped her bow and unsheathed her sword. The Thalmor lunged with her own unsheathed blade at Fakhriya, who moved to one side to avoid the hit. Fakhriya tried to slice into the Thalmor's side but the Thalmor had used the momentum of her own attack to pull herself out of Fakhriya's reach. Fakhriya assumed a stable forward stance and advanced on the Thalmor, who handily deflected each of Fakhriya's blows. When the Thalmor tried to advance on her, Fakhriya parried as well as she could, but she was less skilled in defense than the Thalmor.

Fakhriya, however, moved quicker than the Thalmor.

When Fakhriya had nearly reached the door where she had entered the room, she suddenly dodged hard to her left. The Thalmor reacted quickly but lost her footing on the loose floorboard where Fakhriya had stumbled earlier. Fakhriya sliced the Thalmor in the thigh nearly from behind. The soldier continued to struggle, but Fakhriya had gained a decisive upper hand and made quick work of the soldier.

Fakhriya retrieved her bow, stepped over the dead mage, whose body crowded the landing, and made her way downstairs.

On the mage's desk Fakhriya found a half-written report on the knowledge extracted from an informant. There was another red folder similar to the ones Fakhriya had found in the office upstairs. The name listed in the dossier was Esbern. He was described as a member of the Blades. Fakhriya wondered if Delphine knew him as she placed the third folder into her bag.

Fakhriya looked up from her activities when she heard a man moan.

She walked to the edge of the cell and tentatively peered around the corner to see inside. A human was chained to the wall by his wrists. His arms were fully extended as the bulk of his weight was slumped onto his knees, which barely reached the floor. The man wore pants made of rough spun burlap but he had no shirt. His face was discolored and swollen. Sweat and blood ran in intermingled streams along his face and chest. He looked exhausted.

Fakhriya slowly advanced into the cell as if she were afraid the man would attack her if she startled him.

"Please leave me alone," the man moaned as he struggled to lift his head to face his tormentor. "I swear, I have already told you everything I know."

When he finished speaking, the man let his head fall until his chin rested on his chest. Fakhriya immediately regretted saying the first thing that came to her mind.

"Tell it to me again."

"There's an old man," the prisoner said. "He lives in Riften. He could be the Esbern you're looking for, but I don't know. I just know that he's old and seems kind of crazy. That's all I know."

There had been impatience in the man's voice when he started his explanation that deteriorated to a pleading whimper by the time he finished. Fakhriya suddenly remembered that she was carrying some potions. If she could give the man some relief, maybe he could tell her how she could get him free.

"You cannot escape us," said someone who was running on the balcony. "And we have your friend, too."

"I'm dead anyway," Malborn yelled. "Just go."

"Shut up," a third person yelled to Malborn.

Fakhriya ran out of the cell and looked for a place to hide. She found cover behind some barrels in a dimly lit storage area. Two Thalmor soldiers came spilling onto the lower floor from the staircase. Fakhriya could see Malborn. One of the Thalmor had him by the arm and led him to the mage's desk. It appeared Malborn's hands were free. The other Thalmor ran into the cell where the prisoner was. When she realized only the prisoner was there, the Thalmor turned around. Fakhriya fired an arrow into her.

The room exploded with a fireball.

Contrasted against the orange of the flames Fakhriya could see the silhouette of the Thalmor with an arrow in her throat. Fakhriya fired a second arrow into her and she fell prone. Fakhriya could hear Malborn screaming and could smell burning flesh as a result of the fireball, but she could not see where the Thalmor soldier who had cast the spell was standing. Fakhriya agonized as a second fireball exploded. She wanted to save Malborn but she didn't want to risk exposing her location or killing Malborn herself by firing without a target.

As the flames from the second fireball dissipated, Fakhriya could see that Malborn was dead. She bowed her head and shut her eyes tightly to stop herself from crying. When she opened her eyes and raised her head she saw a key on a cord hanging from a nail. She looked around to see what the key might be for and noticed a trap door on the floor. Fakhriya took the key and opened the door. Fakhriya could hear the Thalmor soldier running towards her as she lowered herself into whatever was below.

There was nothing comforting about hearing the Thalmor laugh as she locked the door over Fakhriya's head.

Fakhriya cast a spell that produced a blue orb which she threw to her left. The orb stuck to the wall and created a glow with the illuminating strength of a candle. Fakhriya found herself in a cave. As she looked around she saw a small, round wooden table and a chair. There was a candle in a holder on the table, but nothing to light it. Opposite the ladder Fakhriya had just descended there was a path going deeper into the cave. The opening was illuminated but it was only a short distance to a bend that blocked the light behind Fakhriya as she went around it.

Beyond the bend Fakhriya could see a dim light source below her position and to her right. The air was damp and cold. She cast a second orb and tossed it to her right. The light revealed that Fakhriya was standing on a ledge. She walked to the edge and cast another orb to see how far the drop was.

Before the orb hit the ground a frost troll emerged from under the ledge. It was not a sheer drop to the lower ground, but the frost troll was unable to reach the lowest protruding rock to hoist itself up to Fakhriya's level. The creature howled as it darted left and right and flailed its arms wildly. Fakhriya fired four or five arrows into the creature's body before the frost troll found the assault annoying enough to retreat to the safety of what Fakhriya assumed was the entrance to the cave.

This left Fakhriya with a problem. She could no longer attack from the safety of the ledge if the creature maintained its cover, but she also had no prayer of defeating the monster alone in straight hand-to-hand combat if she jumped down to the lower level. Going back the way she came, of course, was not an option.

Fakhriya fired a few pointless arrows whenever the creature peered from around its hiding place. Then she got an idea.

She cast a new orb to ensure there would still be light if the earlier orbs dissipated. Then she fired a few more arrows at the entrance of the cave to drive the frost troll deep into cover to buy a few moments of time. She jumped down to the lower level and moved as quickly as she could to a point directly in front of the cave's entrance. As anticipated the frost troll had moved back into the cave to intercept Fakhriya as she came down. The creature lifted its arm high above its head and swung down as Fakhriya shouted.

"Wuld nah."

Fakhriya ran with the force of the thu'um out of the cave into Divines only know what. She staggered as the force of the thu'um dissipated but she continued to run under her own power. After running some distance, Fakhriya embraced a pine tree and gasped to catch her breath. She thanked Mara that the frost troll had not followed her. She turned around to look up the face of the mountain but could not see the Embassy from her vantage point. Down below she could see the road to Solitude.

Fakhriya was nearly bouncing with joy as she headed down the hill to the road. A deep growling stopped her cold. The mountains near Solitude were home not only to bears but also to sabre cats. It had already been a long night. Fakhriya did not want to confront whatever this growling creature was. Suddenly walking the open road did not seem like such a good idea.

Fakhriya carried her bow at the ready as she darted back and forth between the trees just out of sight of the road. The snow muffled most sounds, but it seemed to amplify others. Fakhriya's heart was pounding relentlessly. At some point she realized her feet were cold from trudging in the snow. Despite the growing discomfort of a long journey made even longer by avoiding the easy passage of the cobbled path, Fakhriya was too frightened of exposing herself to hungry animals to take the more comfortable option.

It was not until Fakhriya saw the warm glow of the first lamppost at Solitude's docks that she gave up her cover. She could not resist skipping part of the way to the doorway of the access tunnel between the docks and Solitude's open air market.

"Some Dragonborn hero I turned out to be," Fakhriya muttered to herself with a self-depreciating chuckle as she made her way along the tunnel and into the city. She couldn't think of a single song that praised a hero for skulking in the woods like frightened rabbit.


	8. Chapter 8

In the Thalmor Embassy Fakhriya found proof that the Thalmor had not been responsible for the dragon attack at Helgen. She also found dossiers on Delphine, on a Blade named Esbern, and on Ulfric Stormcloak.

Fakhriya's estimation of Delphine went up after she finished a thorough reading the Thalmor's file on the Blade. Although Fakhriya had never had any reason to doubt that Delphine was everything she claimed to be, it was gratifying to get independent verification. What little the Thalmor knew of Delphine was consistent with what Delphine had related to Fakhriya.

Apparently Delphine had long been a source of trouble for the Thalmor. According to the file, Delphine had been involved in several operations prior to the Great War that had been extremely damaging to Thalmor plans. The Thalmor tried to kill Delphine more than once. The file indicated that Delphine had eluded three attempts on her life, including one instance where she had single handedly destroyed a team of assassins. Delphine's status in the Thalmor dossier was described as Active High Priority. Thalmor operatives had instructions to capture or kill Delphine, and were explicitly advised to only approach her with overwhelming forces.

The file on Esbern indicated that the elderly Nord had been an expert on dragon lore for the Blades. Esbern had escaped the attention of the Thalmor because he had not been a field agent like Delphine had been. The dossier revealed that it was only after the Thalmor had lost sight of Esbern that his role in planning several operations against the Aldmeri Dominion had been revealed. The most recent update to Esbern's file indicated that he was believed to be living in Riften. The Thalmor hoped to capture him and use his knowledge of dragon lore to cope with the current dragon situation in Skyrim. A Thalmor report speculated that the Blades might even be responsible for the return of the dragons.

Fakhriya closed Esbern's file and tossed it on the bed beside her. It had been almost dawn by the time Fakhriya got back to her room at the Winking Skeever in Solitude after she escaped from the Thalmor Embassy on the evening of the First Planting Reception. Fakhriya didn't remember changing her clothes before she went to bed, but the outfit she had worn to the party – or what was left of it – was tossed carelessly on a nearby chair. She was dressed in a simple tunic that she typically wore for sleeping.

Fakhriya remembered waking up briefly in the morning when Jenassa brought in a tray of food and some ale, but had drifted off again when Jenassa left the room. It was late in the afternoon when Fakhriya awoke for the day. She spent the remainder of the day picking at the food Jenassa had provided and reading through the letters and files she had taken from the Embassy.

"So you're finally awake," Jenassa said as she came into the room that evening. "How was the party?"

"Successful, I think," Fakhriya said. "The Thalmor don't seem to know any more about the dragons than we do, but they are looking for a man, a Blade, who they think can provide them with answers."

"Another Blade?" Jenassa replied. "Your friend, Delphine, never mentioned another."

"It's likely she didn't know about him either, but Delphine will need to find this man before the Thalmor do," Fakhriya said. "I don't even want to think about what might happen to him if the Thalmor find him first."

"What do you mean?" Jenassa asked.

"The rumors are true," Fakhriya said gravely. "The Thalmor do torture their prisoners."

Fakhriya picked up some of the papers on the bed and tossed them towards Jenassa.

"Read the report and the dossier on Esbern. Esbern is the Blade the Thalmor are looking for. The informant who revealed Esbern's hiding place to them was chained up in a cell when I found him. They were torturing him. It was horrible."

Jenassa started to thumb through the dossier as Fakhriya spoke. She looked up when Fakhriya mentioned the torture.

Fakhriya went on to tell Jenassa everything about the dungeon. The tortured man. The Thalmor interrogators. Fakhriya started crying when she told Jenassa about Malborn's death.

"I wanted to save Malborn, but I didn't know what to do," Fakhriya sobbed. "He had been so scared from the beginning of this mission. He was depending on me to get the files and get out of there before anything bad happened, but I wasn't fast enough. I attracted too much attention and he got killed for it."

"Malborn knew the mission was dangerous," Jenassa said. She sat on the bed beside Fakhriya. Fakhriya rested her head on Jenassa's shoulder as Jenassa embraced her. "They might have caught him even if you had gotten out of there sooner. You did all you could do."

"All I could do was a lot of nothing," Fakhriya countered. "I not only let Malborn die, I also left the tortured man behind. He's probably dead, too."

"It would have been better if you could have saved them, but you had your own job to do in there," Jenassa insisted. "And you did it. Delphine needed this information and you got it. Because of you, this old man Esbern might have a fighting chance if Delphine can get to him before the Thalmor do."

"I know you're right," Fakhriya said as she wiped the tears from her cheeks, "but I can't stop thinking about how I messed up. Malborn was so brave. He tried to warn me when the Thalmor came in. He needed me and I let him down. And the tortured man. I was horrible to him. I had the information I needed. I didn't have to ask him for it. If I had helped him instead of interrogating him, he might have survived."

"I don't want to be cold about this," Jenassa said gingerly, "but if the prisoner was already as weak as you described, he would have only slowed you down. He probably would have been killed by the frost troll you encountered even if he somehow got past the Thalmor."

"You had to escape," Jenassa continued in a sterner voice. "If things had gone better with Malborn, he likely could have come with you, but Malborn tried to warn you because he understood that you had to escape even if he didn't. The mission was important enough that Malborn was prepared to die for it. As for the prisoner, he was a lost cause long before you stumbled upon him."

Jenassa got up and squatted beside the bed so that she was at eye level with Fakhriya. Jenassa put her hand on Fakhriya's face.

"I know it's hard when you lose good people," Jenassa said, "but you can't let this eat at you. Ideally everyone on your side would have gotten out alive, but things rarely play out ideally. Delphine trusted Malborn because she knew he would do whatever was necessary – even die – to make sure the mission was a success. Delphine trusted you for the same reason. You were nearly killed yourself, but you did what you had to do to survive and you accomplished what you had to accomplish. Honor Malborn by remembering his bravery. You don't owe him anything else."

Jenassa's words evoked another wave of tears from Fakhriya. Fakhriya wiped the tears from her face as quickly as they fell as she tried to compose herself.

"Maybe I just need to sleep some more to get my head back on straight," Fakhriya said. "Are you coming to bed?"

"No," Jenassa said as she got to her feet. "I thought I'd sit in the common room for a while."

"Is it late?" Fakhriya asked.

"Not really," Jenassa said. "The sun went down a while ago, but the kitchen is still serving supper. You should go ahead and get some sleep. I'll be back up in a little while."

Fakhriya pulled the blankets up to her shoulders as Jenassa headed for the door. Fakhriya abruptly sat up just as Jenassa was about to leave.

"Jenassa, do you think the Blades had something to do with the dragons?"

Jenassa stood in the doorway as she considered the question.

"No, I don't," Jenassa said as she turned around to face Fakhriya. "If what Delphine has been telling us is true, the Blades, or whatever is left of them, don't have the resources to raise Alduin. And we know from Kynesgrove that Alduin has been responsible for raising every dragon since. I would be more suspicious of those Greybeards who sent you looking for that horn than the Blades. I'm sure the Greybeards could raise a dragon if they wanted to. But there's no reason to worry about that now. You should go to sleep. I'll be back soon."

Fakhriya got back under the covers as Jenassa shut the door. She had forgotten all about the Horn of Jurgen Windcaller. It had been the Greybeard's request that Fakhriya retrieve the horn for them that had started the chain of events with Delphine.

Fakhriya abruptly sat up and gasped. As the nightmare that woke her faded from her mind, Fakhriya took note of her surroundings. She was in bed. She was in the room at the Winking Skeever. It was night. Jenassa was asleep beside her. Everything seemed fine, but Fakhriya's heart felt like it was pounding through her chest.

Fakhriya got out of bed and lit a candle. From the messenger bag she retrieved the third Thalmor dossier. Ulfric's dossier. Fakhriya hadn't told Jenassa that she had it. Fakhriya couldn't put her finger on why she felt so secretive about Ulfric's file, but she wanted to read through it herself before she told Jenassa about it. Fakhriya took the candle and the file to a table in the corner of the spacious room near the wardrobe where the light would be less likely to disturb Jenassa.

Ulfric's file was substantially larger than the files on Delphine and Esbern. Fakhriya was surprised to learn that Skyrim's civil war was not the first event that drew the Thalmor's attention to Eastmarch's Jarl. Apparently Ulfric had a long history with the Thalmor.

The earliest pages in Ulfric's file described his being captured by the Thalmor during the White-Gold Tower campaign of the Great War. After a string of Aldmeri successes in southern Cyrodiil, Titus Mede II fled Imperial City to avoid capture by Aldmeri forces. The White-Gold Tower campaign was one of several fierce battles fought for control of the Imperial capital. A teenage Ulfric Stormcloak had been captured with his unit in the fighting. According to the dossier, the Thalmor did not know who Ulfric was at the time of his capture, but when they learned under questioning that Ulfric was the son of a Skyrimic Jarl, he was singled out for more detailed attention from his Thalmor captors.

Elenwen, the present ambassador to Skyrim, had been a Thalmor operative in 4E 174 when young Ulfric was assigned to her as an asset. Page after page described the methods of torture used on the boy in a series of brutal interrogations. None of the torture seemed to have the intent to do any lasting physical harm beyond the immediate goal of breaking the boy down. Despite sleep and food deprivation, beatings, being tied up in contorted positions and being relentlessly questioned, Ulfric lasted several weeks before he finally revealed the worthless information that he had protected against such an unyielding onslaught.

Fakhriya's stomach sank as she tried to comprehend what Ulfric had experienced.

The file revealed that Ulfric was of value to the Thalmor because he was the son of a Jarl, but it seemed to Fakhriya that Ulfric would have been too young to be a military leader of any importance at the time he had been captured. The file further explained that the Aldmeri forces had already taken control of Imperial City before Ulfric broke under the torture, yet Elenwen convinced Ulfric that the information he had supplied, which the Thalmor didn't need and didn't use, had been critical in securing the city.

No matter how many times Fakhriya reread the file, it didn't make any sense to her that the Thalmor would torture Ulfric if they didn't expect to get anything useful from him.

And then the Thalmor let Ulfric escape. They didn't release him. They set up a circumstance where Ulfric would be tempted to try to escape on his own. According to the dossier, the Thalmor waited longer than a week for Ulfric to see the opportunity and act on it. The dossier detailed the measures the Thalmor took to facilitate Ulfric's escape from the prison and tracked his progress cross country until he reached Skyrim.

The dossier resumed in the year 4E 176 when Ulfric was sent to lead a Nord militia to subdue a Breton rebellion in the Reach, a hold in southwestern Skyrim. The dossier referred to the Markarth Incident, but Fakhriya didn't know what the Markarth Incident was. Whatever happened in the Reach, the Thalmor were satisfied with the results even if it meant they lost direct contact with their asset, Ulfric.

Fakhriya was reeling at the implications. The dossier explicitly said that the Thalmor had been in direct contact with Ulfric in the Reach. How did Ulfric go from being a tortured prisoner to being a willing operative of the Thalmor in a span of two years? And if Ulfric had been working for the Thalmor, what happened in Markarth that made Ulfric unwilling to continue dealing with the Thalmor after that?

The remainder of the file outlined the decision by the Thalmor to intervene on Ulfric's behalf on the day he was supposed to be executed by the Imperials in Helgen, which was the day Alduin attacked the city. It seemed the Thalmor considered the dragon attack to be a fortunate occurrence because it provided a means for Ulfric to avoid execution without drawing attention to the Thalmor's interest in saving him. The dossier went on to indicate that Thalmor were supporting the Stormcloaks in the civil war, at least enough to keep them fighting, but not enough to help them win against the Empire.

It was dawn by the time Fakhriya finished with Ulfric's file. Reading the file had stirred up the guilt she felt about the mission at the Thalmor Embassy. In addition to the guilt, Ulfric's file left Fakhriya with vague sense of dread. The comfortable room suddenly seemed confining. Fakhriya changed her clothes, blew out the candle and set out for a walk.

She hoped the fresh air would clear her head.


	9. Chapter 9

In addition to the evidence Delphine needed to be sure that the Thalmor were not responsible for Alduin's return, Fakhriya discovered a dossier on Ulfric Stormcloak that described his torture by their hands as a youth and suggested that the Stormcloaks were receiving Thalmor support in the civil war against the Imperials. She went for a walk to make sense of what she has learned.

The morning air was thick with the scent of sulfur from the thawing Karth River delta at low tide when Fakhriya set out to walk the streets of Solitude. It was still much too early for any of the merchants to be at their shops so Fakhriya walked through the Well District past the open air market in the direction of the Bard's College and then headed up to Castle Dour. As she expected, the soldiers were already training.

Before the war when Fakhriya had been studying at the Bard's College she sometimes liked to hang out at the edge of the courtyard where the Imperials did their morning drills before going home after a late night. She liked the precision and the pageantry of the soldiers at the changing of the guard.

Since the war started, the peacetime drills had been suspended to make time for endless training exercises. Young people from all over Skyrim had been flooding into Solitude to join the Legion. Few of the greenest recruits had ever held a sword, much less used one, before arriving at Castle Dour. The young farmhands turned soldiers were accustomed, however, to rising at dawn to do chores. The Legion encouraged that foothold on discipline by training the most recent comers early in the day. As the recruits gained experience they earned the privilege of rising later in the morning.

Fakhriya sat on the ground against the wall just inside the courtyard of Castle Dour and watched the young soldiers train. Most were boys, but there were several girls. At the far end of the courtyard, the teenagers practiced with dull steel swords against dummies. In the center of the courtyard, the kids were partnered to do drills against each other with wooden swords and shields. Closer to where Fakhriya was sitting, the young recruits were practicing archery.

None of the soldiers training that morning were any older than Ulfric had been when he wore an Imperial uniform. As she watched the kids do their exercises, Fakhriya couldn't help but speculate how any one of them would endure the torture Ulfric had. The descriptions had been sickening when Fakhriya read them in Ulfric's Thalmor file, but the horror took on a new dimension as she imagined one fresh faced recruit after another being subjected to the same experience. The images of the tortured man she had left behind at the Thalmor Embassy and the vision of the young soldiers before her comingled in revolting combinations in her mind. When the sight of the soldiers training with wooden weapons became entwined with the image of Malborn's dead body, Fakhriya decided she had had enough.

Fakhriya circled around the edge of the courtyard to a walled off alcove that had several rows of pews facing a pair of wooden thrones. The thick stone walls that isolated the alcove from the training area muffled the sounds of the exercising soldiers. Fakhriya walked down the center of the row of pews to a large wooden door at the entry to the Temple of the Divines.

When Fakhriya stepped inside she found herself at the back of an immense cathedral. The air smelled of lavender and incense. Rows of pews made of the same wood as the ones Fakhriya had passed outside, but with higher backs and ornate sprigs of lavender affixed to the sides, drew the eye to the chapel at the far end of the cathedral. The morning sun filtered through the high glass windows above the semicircle of shrines to the Divines.

Fakhriya had never considered herself a particularly religious person, but worship of the Divines had been an important part of her upbringing. Most humans - and even some mer - in the Empire revered all eight Divines, excluding Talos, but many found that they had an affinity for one or two in particular. Fakhriya's father, for example, devoted his most intense worship for Akatosh because of the similarities between the Cyrodilic god and the Redguard god, Ruptga, who her father had worshipped in his youth. Fakhriya's older sister aligned herself with the teachings of Julianos, who was the patron of logic and reason, and Zenithar, the patron of work. Her mother revered Kynareth, as the goddess was called in the Imperial pantheon, but practiced her worship in the Nord tradition. Fakhriya was partial to the teachings of Dibella and Mara.

Fakhriya liked to think that Dibella and Mara were two sides of the same coin. Both goddesses were associated with love. Dibella, however, was the patron of physical beauty, indulgence and promiscuity, while Mara was the patron of compassion and maternal instinct. In her desire to be a bard, and in her love of fashion, food and fun, Fakhriya sought guidance from Dibella in a practical sense, but in her hope for fairness and justice in the world, Fakhriya embraced the ideals of Mara. Fakhriya believed that the balance between the two goddesses was the path to honesty, truth and goodwill to all.

Fakhriya regularly wore an amulet of Dibella and often prayed for Mara's benevolence, but she couldn't remember the last time she sought out a shrine to either goddess. Recent events seemed to be rushing by Fakhriya like a swollen river through rapids. If she had ever needed divine guidance to help her navigate the current rather than be swept away by it, it seemed to be now.

As she reached the chapel, Fakhriya's eye was drawn to the only recess among the nine that did not contain a shrine. Talos worship had been outlawed for as long as Fakhriya had been alive, but she had never been confronted so directly with the absence of Talos among the Divines. In the Great Chapel of Talos in Bruma the shrine had been removed, but the statues and images of Talos were intact. Some of the families of her childhood friends had makeshift shrines to Talos hidden in a root cellar or in some remote spot on their properties. In her youth people had been careful to not speak the name of Talos too loud or too often, but Talos was present in the lives of many in Bruma. Fakhriya couldn't stop herself from feeling sympathetic to the Stormcloaks as she considered the empty space in Solitude's chapel.

Three spaces to the left of the empty recess where the Shrine of Talos once stood was the Shrine of Dibella. It was only as Fakhriya approached the shrine that she realized she had not brought anything with her to offer to the goddess. People traditionally left flowers, potions or gemstones at the shrines as offerings for the blessings they expected to receive. Fakhriya rummaged through her clothes and found a couple of septims. She knelt before the shrine and held one of the coins with both hands. With her head bowed, Fakhriya held the coin to the sky, kissed it as she brought it down and placed it in front of the shrine. She remained kneeling and meditated on a ritual prayer to Dibella. After about an hour, Fakhriya placed her hands on the shrine and petitioned Dibella for insight.

Fakhriya got to her feet and walked around for a while in the chapel to restore the circulation in her legs. As she paced back and forth, she noticed Rorlund, a priest of the Temple, replacing the sprigs of flowers on the pews in the chapel. He nodded at Fakhriya and bid her welcome. Fakhriya acknowledged him and then knelt before the Shrine of Mara and performed a ritual similar to the meditation she had done before the Shrine of Dibella.

As Fakhriya was finishing her meditation, she became aware of a conversation between Rorlund and a priestess, Silana Petreia.

"I feel many of Solitude's families are having trouble getting by," Silana Petreia stated, "but the wealthy do nothing to help them."

"Your compassion is admirable, but you see, we cannot help them all," Rorlund said. "The poor must learn from the examples of the gods and raise themselves up."

"I respectfully disagree, sir," Silana Petreia replied. "Stendarr and Zenithar may demand strength from them, but Mara and Dibella demand compassion from us."

Silana Petreia's words were like a splash of cold water to the face for Fakhriya.

_Stendarr and Zenithar demand strength, but Mara and Dibella demand compassion._

Fakhriya wasn't exactly sure what to do with that insight, but she was convinced that Mara had answered her prayer. She left the Temple of the Divines with more joy and resolve in her heart than she had felt in a long time.

A different, clearly more experienced, batch of recruits was training in the courtyard when Fakhriya left the temple. She stopped to watch the soldiers for a while and then surveyed the courtyard for the commanding officer. A captain was barking commands and encouragement to some young archers.

"Captain," Fakhriya called as she approached the Legionnaire, "I hope you can help me. I would like to lend my support to the Imperial war effort."

On the front door of Angeline's Aromatics, an alchemy shop near the Winking Skeever, hung a flowery wreath. Fakhriya had seen similar decorations throughout Skyrim. Sometimes the ornaments were as simple as a few sprigs in a pot on a stoop, but most often branches of lavender or thistle were woven with tundra cotton into rings. The wreaths indicated that a member of the household was fighting in the civil war. Although the items constituting the wreaths were likely chosen because they were inexpensive materials found readily throughout the province, Fakhriya liked to think that the purple color represented a unified Skyrim without the political distinctions of Imperial loyalists, who marched under a red banner, or Stormcloak rebels, who marched under blue. Sadly, the wreath on the door of Angeline's Aromatics had red mountain flowers woven into it.

The red, done most commonly with snowberries in the colder holds or with red mountain flowers in more temperate holds, indicated that the soldier had fallen. Angeline's daughter had lost her life in a skirmish on the border between Whiterun Hold and the Pale early in the conflict.

When Fakhriya entered the shop she found Angeline, a Breton woman in her 60s, tutoring a young woman in potion mixing.

"Deary, go ahead and try the potion and you'll see what I mean," Angeline said to her student. "It won't kill you. Give it a taste."

The young woman looked apprehensively at Angeline and then took a sip of the potion. She scrunched her face in response to the taste and then opened her eyes wide as she reacted to the affects.

"Oh, that doesn't feel right at all," the young woman said.

"And it shouldn't," Angeline said with a smile. "Both histcarp and silverside perch have the effect of restoring stamina, but together they also have the effect of damaging stamina regeneration. Your mixture is neither a potion nor a poison, but a worthless combination of both. When a remedy damages as much as it repairs, it isn't much of a fix."

As the student returned to her notes, Angeline approached the counter to offer her assistance to Fakhriya.

"I haven't seen you around in quite a while," Angeline said. "Are you still practicing your mixing?"

"Actually, that's why I'm here today," Fakhriya said. "I was talking to Captain Aldis about how I could help the war effort and he recommended that I come to see you."

"Are you staying in Solitude, dear? I could always put a good mixer to use," Angeline said.

"No, I will be traveling, but I have some ingredients in storage in Whiterun that you might find useful. I hoped I could arrange to have them brought to you."

"That would be an immense help," Angeline said. "It is becoming much too dangerous for most of the young people who volunteer here to go out in search of ingredients. So many common things are becoming harder to come by and of course, as the war goes on, more and more soldiers need the relief the potions provide. Let me find my niece to help you. She can give you an idea of what is in the shortest supply and help you make your shipping arrangements."

Fakhriya felt pretty good about herself when she left the alchemy shop. After all, a person didn't have to be a soldier to contribute meaningfully to the war effort.


	10. Chapter 10

Fakhriya realized she was quite tired when she returned to her room at the Winking Skeever. She had been up since the wee hours reading through the Thalmor dossier on Ulfric Stormcloak and then went out for an early morning walk to clear her head. It was well past midmorning by the time she returned.

"Where have you been?" Jenassa asked as Fakhriya came into the room. "I was starting to get a little worried about you."

"I'm sorry," Fakhriya said. "I couldn't sleep, so I got up and then I decided to go for a walk. I didn't expect that I would be gone so long. Did you read through that?"

Jenassa looked down at the folder in front of her and absent mindedly turned over the page she had been reading when Fakhriya walked in.

"Yeah, I looked over most of it," Jenassa said. "I never thought I'd see the day when I'd feel sorry for Ulfric Stormcloak, but what happened to him shouldn't happen to anybody. Still, you'd think an experience like that would have made Ulfric more empathetic to the suffering of people. Instead it made him a prick."

Fakhriya took a seat at the table where Jenassa was sitting and helped herself to some cheese and fruit.

"I've been trying to make sense of that file all morning," Fakhriya said. "Do you remember the Markarth Incident?"

"Sort of," Jenassa said. Elven lifespans were significantly longer than human lifespans. By a human estimation Jenassa appeared to be about 30 years old. In actuality, she was well over a century old. "I vaguely remember it because reclaiming the Reach was Ulfric's first command, so it was a big deal to people in Windhelm, but otherwise, it was more fighting in a small, distant hold at a time when there was still a lot of fighting in a lot of other places."

"You actually fought in the Great War, didn't you?" Fakhriya asked.

"I did," Jenassa said as she opened an ale. "In fact, I fought under Ulfric's father's banner. Windhelm had never been particularly welcoming of my kind, but we Dunmer had already been in Eastmarch for a long time when the Great War started. Windhelm was the only home I had ever known. I marched proudly under the Banner of the Bear not only for the defense of the Empire and the honor of Skyrim, but for the glory of Eastmarch."

"Of course," Jenassa continued, "while Dunmer blood was good enough to spill on the ground in the Bear's honor, Dunmer boots weren't good enough to march with the true sons and daughters of Skyrim. We Dark Elves were organized into our own battalion and led by a Nord Centurion. But once the swords start swinging, those kinds of distinctions go away. Anyone wearing a uniform that looks like yours is your friend."

Jenassa swallowed some ale and stared at the wall with a faraway look in her eyes.

"For all I know," she said as a hint of smile warmed her face, "I stood ankle deep in the mud and blood with my back to that little bastard's."

The smile left her face as she continued.

"But ask Ulfric how many Dunmer fought with him and I'm sure he doesn't remember a single one of us."

"So, no, I don't really remember what happened in Markarth," Jenassa said, "but I do remember that there had been some issue with Talos worship. Ulfric and his men were arrested. In fact, Ulfric missed his father's funeral because he was locked up. I remember that. And I remember when Ulfric came home to Windhelm after he was released from prison. He might not even have been as old as you are now when he came back, but he had been little more than a boy when he left to fight in Cyrodiil. Ulfric returned a war hero and a Jarl. And he came home full of rage. I don't think that kid even knew where his father's crypt was before he reopened the Temple of Talos and insisted he would raise an army to free Skyrim from the Empire."

"By the Eights, really?" Fakhriya asked.

"Oh, yeah," Jenassa asserted. She chuckled as she continued, "Of course in those days Ulfric would have had an easier time recreating Sovngarde on Nirn than he did trying to raise an army big enough to take on the Windhelm City Guard, much less the Empire. I mean, sure, people would stand in the cold for hours for the chance to hear to him rant and rave on the Valunstrad about the weaknesses of the Empire and the threats to Nord traditions, but it's one thing to get people to talk about war in the comfort of Candlehearth Hall and something else to get them to arm themselves and march. People didn't like the way the Great War ended, but that didn't mean they were ready to follow Ulfric into another one."

Jenassa's eyes narrowed. She swallowed some more ale before continuing.

"So Ulfric waited. He's waited almost half his life, but he finally has what he has always needed: An army of kids. Young people, like you. None of you are old enough to remember the pain of the Great War, but all of you grew up in the shadow of your parents' resentments over it."

"And now Ulfric stands before you," Jenassa said as she got to her feet and extended her arms outwards in a gesture that could have been taken as an invitation to an embrace or as a plea, "and he says to you 'I can free Skyrim from the shame of a dying empire and all you must do is make me High King.'" Jenassa let her arms fall to her sides.

"Some of you manage to resist his charms and some of you submit all too readily to them," Jenassa said as she took her seat, "but none of you little Nord brats can ignore Ulfric's call."

"Uh, Jenassa," Fakhriya said as she held up one hand with the palm towards her face. With the other hand she pointed at her skin, "I'm not a Nord."

"I know what I said," Jenassa replied as she smirked. "You'll do."

"OK, so, here's what I don't understand," Fakhriya said. "Was Ulfric working for the Thalmor in the Reach?"

"I don't know," Jenassa said. She started to rummage idly through the papers. "I find it hard to believe that he would work for them after what he had been through, but maybe the term 'direct contact' isn't meant to be taken as literally as it seems. Maybe it means they intervened directly to get him the command in the Reach. Maybe Ulfric was aware that he had supporters who were acting on his behalf even if he didn't necessarily know that those people were working for the Thalmor. Or maybe Ulfric did know the Thalmor were helping him, but he thought he could manipulate them. After all, the Thalmor did let Ulfric believe that he had been clever enough to escape from them."

"None of this makes any sense," Fakhriya complained. "The Thalmor tortured Ulfric for no reason and then let him go and then they helped him in his military career and now they are helping him fight the Empire? If Ulfric wins the war, he's going to fight against the Thalmor, isn't he? Why would the Thalmor be supporting him?"

"Well, the Thalmor aren't supporting the Stormcloaks because they want Ulfric to win the war," Jenassa pointed out. "They're helping him to keep the war going. Left to his own devices, Ulfric couldn't possibly have the men or the material to stand long against the Empire. Eastmarch may be a relatively wealthy hold, but Skyrim is not a wealthy province. The war in Skyrim, however, diverts resources the Empire could be using to rebuild in Cyrodiil or to stockpile for another war against the Aldmeri Dominion. Every septim the Empire spends on the rebellion in Skyrim is one more septim lost in the struggle against the Thalmor."

"OK, I can see why the Thalmor would find a war in Skyrim useful," Fakhriya said as she considered Jenassa's assessment. "But still, the Thalmor have been tampering in Ulfric's life for, like, ever. Are you saying that they – I don't know – tricked Ulfric into starting the civil war?"

"No, I don't think the Thalmor tricked Ulfric into starting the war," Jenassa said. "I think they took a chance that he would start a war. Think about it. When Ulfric was captured, why was he considered valuable to the Thalmor?"

"Because he was the son of a Jarl," Fakhriya answered.

"But so what?" Jenassa retorted. "Ulfric was the son of some no-name Jarl in some backwater hold. You grew up in Cyrodiil. What do Imperials think of Nords?"

"Imperials think Nords are barely literate barbarians," Fakhriya said flatly.

"Exactly. So Ulfric being a barely literate barbarian's son doesn't mean much," Jenassa said. "What did the Thalmor do when they captured Ulfric? Did they ransom him back to his father? Did they try to use his capture as leverage against the High King? It would have been a joke if the Thalmor tried to use Ulfric's capture as leverage against the Emperor. No one in Cyrodiil would have cared if some barbarian's son was rotting in a Thalmor prison while the Altmer were laying siege to the Imperial City."

"Ulfric wasn't valuable because of who he was then," Jenassa concluded. "He was valuable because of who he would become. Skyrim has long been a fiercely loyal province to the Empire. What better way to break up that loyalty than to encourage insurrection over Talos worship? And who better to lead that insurrection than an enraged Jarl who feels compelled to prove his bravery and prowess because he is ashamed that he once broke under torture?"

"That seems like a pretty big chance," Fakhriya said incredulously. "It's been twenty five years since the Great War ended. A lot has happened in that time. There was no way the Thalmor could have known that Ulfric would do any of what he's doing now."

"No, of course not," Jenassa said, "but the Thalmor have certainly intervened as often as they could to offer Ulfric a path that suited their needs. We elves live longer than you humans do. Sometimes we feel pretty comfortable in considering a longer view."

"I don't know, maybe," Fakhriya said although she didn't sound entirely convinced.

Jenassa collected the scattered pages of Ulfric's file and put them back in the folder.

"What are you going with all this stuff?" she asked Fakhriya.

"I thought I would give most of it to Delphine. Some of it I'll need to prove to her that the Thalmor didn't raise Alduin and the rest of it might be of interest to her," Fakhriya said.

"Are you going to give her Ulfric's dossier, too?"

"No. I don't know what to do with that one," Fakhriya said. "We need to go to Riverwood anyway so I thought I would leave it in Whiterun until I figure out what to do with it. I feel like I should give the information to someone, but I don't know who."

"You could hand deliver it to your boyfriend, Ulfric, and he can regale you with tales of old times," Jenassa joked.

"I thought I might give it to Jarl Elisif. It seems to me she could use this information. Solitude has a relationship with the Thalmor. Someone among the Imperials should know that the Thalmor are playing both sides," Fakhriya said. "And Ulfric is not my boyfriend. He's your boyfriend."

"We're in Solitude now. Why not give the dossier to Jarl Elisif today?" Jenassa asked. "And you don't have to lie. I know you are in love with Ulfric Stormcloak."

"By the Eights, Jenassa, I am not in love with Ulfric Stormcloak. You are. You wanted to know if he was married," Fakhriya retorted with an annoyed tone. She was not enjoying the teasing as much as Jenassa seemed to be. "And if the Thalmor are even half as sneaky as you seem to think they are, I can't very well march into the Blue Palace and just hand a stolen Thalmor file to Jarl Elisif in front of everyone."

"That's true. The Thalmor probably have spies crawling all over Solitude," Jenassa agreed. "And Ulfric would never marry me because he knows I don't love him as much as you do. He needs his sweet, sun kissed, desert lover to heal his wounded heart."

Fakhriya smiled broadly in spite of herself.

"Sweet, sun kissed, desert lover?" Fakhriya repeated as she laughed. "You are such a dork, Jenassa."

"And that is the first time you have laughed in a couple of days," Jenassa replied with a satisfied grin of her own.


	11. Chapter 11

Fakhriya and Jenassa returned to Whiterun so Fakhriya could pack up the alchemy ingredients she had promised to Angeline Morrard. She left instructions with her housecarl, Lydia, to have the ingredients shipped to Solitude and she left Ulfric's Thalmor dossier in Lydia's care. Then Fakhriya and Jenassa traveled to Riverwood to deliver the evidence Delphine requested that proved the Thalmor had not been responsible for raising Alduin.

Delphine was shocked to learn that Esbern was still alive. Fearful that she would be easily picked up by Thalmor operatives if she sought out Esbern herself, she asked Fakhriya and Jenassa to go to Riften and find him.

Riften was the capital city of the Rift, a hold in southeastern Skyrim. Located on the shores of Lake Honrich, the city was a shadow of its former self. Riften had seen considerable unrest in the second century of the Fourth Era. The assassination of the Jarl in 4E 98 resulted in the installation of Jarl Hosgunn Cross-Daggers, who imposed staggering taxes on the population and spent most of the revenue on a considerable palace, Mistveil Keep, which still served as the Jarl's residence. A rebellion in the 4E 140s nearly razed the city. Although the physical rebuilding of the city had been completed almost 50 years ago, Riften, which was reputed to be the base of the Thieves Guild, had still not regained the prosperity it once enjoyed.

Fakhriya and Jenassa traced Esbern's whereabouts to a hovel deep in a network of sewers and tunnels under Riften's city streets and boardwalks. In the Ratway, as the sewer network was commonly known, the women were not surprised to encounter hostile thieves and thugs, but were alarmed to encounter several Aldmeri soldiers. They had arrived barely ahead of the Thalmor and had little time to find Esbern and extract him from his hiding place.

From what she figured must have been the lowest level of the Ratway, Fakhriya climbed a stone staircase slick with wet moss. From inside a room located near the staircase an old man wildly waved a dagger and incoherently insisted that he would gladly stab all comers. Fakhriya tried not to make eye contact or provoke the man as she passed the doorway. When Jenassa reached the top of the staircase, she turned to walk backwards with an eye on the doorway to make sure the man would think twice about advancing. When Jenassa turned back around, Fakhriya had already reached a thick wooden door in a dark corner.

Fakhriya knocked loudly on the door and asked for Esbern.

"Esbern?" replied a masculine voice from the other side of the door. "There's no Esbern here. Get away from the door and be on your way."

"Delphine sent me to find you, Esbern," Fakhriya insisted. "We don't have much time. The Thalmor know you are here. We have to leave now."

"I don't know any Delphine," the man replied. "You must have me mistaken with some else. Besides, how do I know you aren't Thalmor yourself? Get away from here. I will not let you in."

"We don't have time for this," Jenassa hissed nervously to Fakhriya. Fakhriya nodded.

"Delphine gave me this message for Esbern: Remember the thirtieth of Frostfall," Fakhriya said with growing desperation.

After several seconds of agonizing silence from the other side of the door, the women could hear the man undoing a surprisingly long series of locks. The door suddenly swung open.

"Hurry up before someone sees you," said a tall, balding Nord with a white beard as he indicated with a waving arm that the women should enter. After Fakhriya and Jenassa stepped into his living quarters, Esbern secured the series of locks.

"Delphine made it out of Cyrodiil alive?" Esbern asked as soon as he had finished with the locks. "That is good news. I shouldn't be surprised. Delphine always had been crafty. I thought I was the only one of us left. Thanks to the Divines that Delphine lives."

"Delphine needs your help," Fakhriya said urgently. "The dragons have returned and she needs you to help her stop Alduin."

"Alduin?" Esbern repeated. "So the prophecy has come to pass. There is nothing to be done now. Alduin will consume this world and herald the birth of the next. Even if Delphine had an army of Blades at her disposal and not just an old man such as me, there is no way to stop Alduin if he has already risen. If only she had believed me. I saw the signs of the prophecy years ago, but no one would listen. 'Just the ramblings of an old man,' they all said. But I knew better. I saw the signs."

"There must be something we can do," Fakhriya insisted as she cut Esbern off midsentence. "She wouldn't have sent me to find you otherwise."

"Only a Dragonborn has any hope of stopping Alduin," Esbern stated as if he were correcting a defiant child. "Emperor Martin Septim was the last Dragonborn. Akatosh has forsaken humankind and left us to our fate."

"I am Dragonborn," Fakhriya announced. Jenassa pointed at Fakhriya to add emphasis to her words.

The look on Esbern's face went from surprised to hopeful as Fakhriya's words sunk in.

"You are Dragonborn?" Esbern said. His smile was sincere but his eyes were a little crazy. "That changes everything. The Divines may not have forsaken us."

Esbern clapped his hands together and spun around. Like an orange dartwing zipping among river weeds, Esbern flipped through books and papers scattered throughout his living quarters while rambling absent mindedly about what must be done if there is a Dragonborn to face Alduin and how much could have been done already if only someone had listened to him sooner.

Fakhriya watched nervously as Esbern wandered in circles and talked to himself about dragons and prophecies and all the people over the years who had ignored his warnings. Jenassa's patience finally reached an end.

"We have to leave now," Jenassa yelled. "Right now. Not after you find one more thing, but right this moment. The Thalmor will be here soon. If they catch us down here, there will be no stopping Alduin."

"Yes, yes, you're right, of course," Esbern said dismissively as he continued to root through piles, selecting some things to bring along and discarding others. "There is information here the Thalmor would like to have, but I won't let them have it."

Jenassa shrugged in frustration and disbelief as Fakhriya gave her a look that urged her to calm down. Both women sighed in relief when Esbern finally announced that he was ready to go.

Fakhriya led the way out the door with Esbern right behind her. Jenassa followed Esbern to make sure the old man didn't fall behind.

The party had not ascended far in the Ratway when they stumbled upon Thalmor soldiers who were on their way down. Fakhriya unsheathed her sword and stood her ground to protect Esbern. To her surprise, a frost atronach suddenly appeared with its back to her. Firebolts darted past her head and made quick work of one of the soldiers. Jenassa's arrows took down another and the frost atronach dispatched the third and then took a place behind Esbern.

The old man looked nonplussed as Fakhriya turned and smiled at him.

Even without the threat of encountering more Thalmor, exiting the Ratway proved to be challenge. The party got lost several times before they surfaced on a wooden plankway at the canal level below the Bee and Barb Inn. They took a wooden staircase to the street level and nearly broke into a run towards Riften's north gate. Fakhriya and Jenassa had gone into the Ratway at sunrise to find Esbern. It was now nearly sundown as they left the city. Fakhriya wasn't fond of traveling at night, but with the Thalmor on their heels, she knew that Esbern had to be reunited with Delphine as quickly as possible.

Outside the city gate Fakhriya offered a carriage driver double his usual fare to get the party to Whiterun as quickly and discreetly as possible. The driver happily accepted and made a show of not watching as his charges climbed aboard.

Fakhriya, Jenassa and Esbern ate their supper on the moving carriage and then settled in for the overnight ride. Esbern offered Fakhriya a book to look through during the journey. Fakhriya accepted the book when Esbern offered it, but had not intended to read it. She had hoped the rocking of the carriage would lull her to sleep, but at some point in the night, the rocking that had been so soothing became disruptive. Fakhriya moved to a position closer to the driver to take advantage of the lantern that hung on a post mounted near his seat and read through Esbern's book.

The book was treatise on the Dragonborn written in the fourth century of the Third Era during the reign of Pelagius Septim IV by a prior of the Order of Talos, as the Blades were also known. The book described how the gift of Akatosh became associated with the Reman and Septim bloodlines and speculated on a prophecy that was commonly ascribed to an Elder Scroll.

_When misrule takes its place at the eight corners of the world_

_When the Brass Tower walks and Time is reshaped_

_When the thrice blessed fall and the Red Tower trembles_

_When the Dragonborn Ruler loses his throne and the White Tower falls_

_When the Snow Tower lies sundered, kingless, bleeding_

_The World Eater wakes and the Wheel turns upon the Last Dragonborn _

Rather than help her fall back to sleep, the tome and the prophecy it contained sent Fakhriya's mind reeling. Fakhriya understood that she was _a_ Dragonborn, but she hadn't realized she was the _last_ Dragonborn. Perhaps in the Third Era the final line of the prophecy seemed cryptic, but in the third century of the Fourth Era, it was all too clear that Alduin, of course, was the World Eater and that the Wheel, as it were, turned upon Fakhriya. Fakhriya slept fitfully for the remainder of the ride to Whiterun and nightmares were the dominant feature of what little rest she got.

Upon arriving in Whiterun, the party immediately set out in the predawn hours for Riverwood. Although she had grown fond of the doddering Esbern, Fakhriya was quite anxious to deliver the old man to Delphine, as if their arrival in Riverwood would magically end the Thalmor's dogged pursuit.

Only a bard and a bartender occupied the common room when Fakhriya, Jenassa and Esbern entered the Sleeping Giant Inn. The bartender called out to Delphine when he recognized the women. Delphine entered the room wearing leather armor rather than the innkeeper's garb she typically wore. Esbern pushed past Fakhriya and Jenassa when he saw Delphine.

"Esbern?" Delphine asked as the old man approached her. She could barely contain her emotion as the two embraced as tightly as father and daughter. After exchanging a few brief words with Esbern, Delphine refocused on the matter at hand.

Jenassa took a seat at the bar as Delphine led Esbern and Fakhriya into her private sleeping quarters. There was a removable panel inside the wardrobe that concealed a staircase leading down to the basement. This was not Fakhriya's first trip to Delphine's secret hideout.

Delphine brought Esbern up to speed on the events that had transpired since Alduin attacked Helgen. Esbern took a moment to chastise Delphine for failing to believe him when he had tried to piece together the prophecy years earlier and Delphine sounded sincere when she apologized for that mistake. Satisfied that he was finally vindicated, Esbern described a temple abandoned long ago in the canyons of the Karth River valley that might contain an ancient carving that could be of some help in determining how Alduin might be defeated. Delphine thought that location Esbern described might be Karthspire, a mountain to the northeast of Markarth.

Delphine told Fakhriya that she and Esbern would head out immediately for Karthspire to determine if that was, in fact, the location of the temple and that Fakhriya should join them as soon as possible in the Reach.

Delphine seemed to linger as she closed the panel in the wardrobe. She grabbed a bag she had already packed and followed Esbern into the common area. She put the bag on the floor at Esbern's feet and walked behind the bar to embrace the bartender, an intimidatingly large dark haired Nord. Fakhriya had never seen the bartender smile before, but his expression warmed as he held Delphine.

"The place is yours, Orgnar," Delphine said as she released her embrace. "I won't be coming back here again."

"You take care yourself out there," Orgnar replied.

"I will," Delphine said.

Delphine picked up her bag and headed for the door. Esbern followed without a word. Orgnar resumed his work behind the counter.

Fakhriya broke the silence by placing twenty septims on the counter.

"We'd like a room, please," she said. Fakhriya wondered how Esbern had the stamina to leave with Delphine for the Reach after traveling all night from Riften. Fakhriya would have preferred to sleep in her own bed in Whiterun than at the inn in Riverwood, but the thought of traveling even the short distance to the hold's capital seemed daunting.

The bard struck up a tune when two regulars came through the door.

"Let me know if there's anything else you need," Orgnar said as he left the room he had just sold to Fakhriya and Jenassa. Jenassa closed the door behind him.

"Two ales and two beef?" Orgnar asked his customers as if today were just like any other day.


	12. Chapter 12

Fakhriya and Jenassa returned to Whiterun after reuniting Esbern and Delphine in Riverwood. As a result of his study of dragon lore, Esbern believed that an ancient carving in Sky Haven Temple would offer clues as to how a Dragonborn might defeat Alduin. Delphine's research led her to believe that the temple Esbern sought might be located in Karthspire in the Reach.

Fakhriya and Jenassa's journey to the Reach from Whiterun was uneventful except for a dragon attack along the banks of the Karth River near the base of Karthspire. With the assistance of Delphine and Esbern, the women were able to dispatch the dragon quickly, but at the entrance to the canyon that housed the Sky Haven Temple a tribe of Forsworn had established a large encampment.

The Forsworn were the survivors of the suppressed ethnic Breton rebellion of 4E 174. Breton tribes had occupied the Reach for thousands of years before they were conquered by the Nords in the days of Tiber Septim. In the chaos of the Great War, the Bretons overthrew their Nord rulers and declared the Reach an independent province. In 4E 176 the Reachmen initiated conversations with Emperor Titus Mede II to be formally recognized as independent from the Empire. The deposed Jarl asked Solitude to intervene to prevent the recognition of the Reachmen state. Solitude sent Ulfric Stormcloak to lead the Nord militia charged with restoring the hold to Skyrimic control.

Imperial reports and Reachmen eye witness accounts described Ulfric's forces as ruthlessly brutal. Ulfric's troops reportedly butchered the Forsworn who offered resistance and summarily executed those who surrendered. The most horrific reports claimed that Ulfric's forces were equally violent against civilian populations. According to the accounts, the soldiers under Ulfric's command were instructed to assume that all Bretons in the Reach were resistance fighters and any Reachman who could not prove that he or she had actively supported Ulfric's campaign would be punished with the destruction of his or her farm and property. In some cases it was reported that legionnaires under Ulfric's command executed the families of those who were believed to be active in the Forsworn resistance but managed to avoid capture.

Although the Reach's capital, Markarth, had been securely under Nord control since 4E 176, bands of Forsworn still roamed the wilds of the Reach and were known to attack both Imperial and Thalmor soldiers and to hijack commercial shipments.

The Forsworn camped at Karthspire were brave and formidable fighters, but the team of Fakhriya, Jenassa, Delphine and Esbern were able to subdue them long enough to get into the cave that opened into the canyon where the long forgotten Sky Haven Temple stood.

In her days as an adventurer, Fakhriya had become accustomed to the totem animal symbols that offered clues to avoid traps in ancient Nord ruins, but the Akavari symbols on the way to Sky Haven Temple were completely unfamiliar to her. Luckily, Esbern recognized the symbols and with his help Fakhriya was able to guide the group safely to the massive stone visage that marked the entrance to Sky Haven. Esbern said the face was the likeness of Reman Cyrodiil, the god-hero of the Second Era who defeated the Akavari, united Cyrodiil and then, with Akavari help, conquered all of Tamriel except Morrowind. Reman Cyrodiil was the first Emperor of the Reman Dynasty and according to legend, he was the son of St. Alessia, who delivered the Amulet of Kings to humankind.

"Look at how wonderfully preserved it is," Esbern exclaimed as he admired the sculpture. "The Akavari found their purpose in Reman Cyrodiil, the first of the Dragonborn kings. And a blood seal!"

Fakhriya stepped closer to see the blood seal on the floor several feet in front of the face of Reman Cyrodiil.

"It'll be your blood, Dragonborn, that opens the seal," Esbern said as he smiled at her.

"Of course," Fakhriya said as she rolled her eyes in mock surprise. She reached for her sword and cut her finger with the tip. "How much blood will it take to open the seal?"

"I'm certain you won't bleed out," Esbern said, "but I doubt the pinprick you've provided will be enough."

Fakhriya wasn't keen on the idea of cutting herself again. She knelt over the seal and squeezed her finger to drip as much blood as possible onto the seal. With the first drop landing on the stone, the blood seal unraveled like a ribbon to reveal a force that swirled in glowing yellow hues and dissipated as it escaped from the confines of the seal.

The four adventurers were startled when the ground shook beneath them. The sand and loose pebbles that had collected around the sculpture of Reman Cyrodiil over the centuries fell in clumps and created dust clouds. The stony face of the ancient Dragonborn ruler receded into the façade of the temple.

Once inside the temple, a winding staircases circled to the left and opened into a large common room that boasted a stone long table and several chairs. Delphine and Esbern immediately got to the task of lighting braziers for warmth and light in the musty, dismal temple.

At the far end of the common room was the carving that lured the party to Sky Haven: Alduin's Wall.

Although Delphine was able to stay focused on the mundane tasks at hand, Esbern was immediately distracted by the carving. He brought a torch with him to inspect the carving in greater detail. He muttered to himself about the beauty and craftsmanship of the ancient art, but took a more scholarly tone when he noticed Fakhriya had come closer to inspect the wall as well.

"Do you see this here?" Esbern asked as Fakhriya took a closer look at the carving where Esbern was holding a torch. "Here is Alduin surrounded by the Dragon Priests. Long before your people came from Yokuda to settle in Hammerfell, the humans who came from Atmora were ruled by Dragon Priests. The Dragon Priests were humans who dedicated themselves to the service of dragons in exchange for power and immortality. Alduin is said to have given up his role as the World Eater to conquer Mundus for himself and enslave the races of humankind."

Esbern stopped to see if Fakhriya was still paying attention. She smiled politely at Esbern. He took Fakhriya by the arm and led her to the next panel.

"And here you see the races of humankind rebelling against the Dragon Priests," Esbern said to his pupil. "In exchange for absolute loyalty, the dragons allowed the Dragon Priests to rule the population. The Dragon Priests so oppressed the peoples of Tamriel that the people rebelled against them. A dragon respects only power and loathes few things more than weakness. When it became apparent that the Dragon Priests could no longer control the people, the dragons sought to destroy the races of humankind."

This time Esbern took Fakhriya by arm to lead her to the next panel without checking to see if her interest had waned.

"We don't have time for lectures, Esbern," Delphine said. "Does the Wall tell us how to defeat Alduin or not?"

"Yes, yes. It'll be here," Esbern said to Delphine. "The Akavari recorded all they knew about the dragons on this wall in allegorical images. The only way to make sense of the deeper ideas suggested by images is in the organizing of the thoughts to tell the stories."

"Besides," Esbern continued as he gave Fakhriya a squeeze on the shoulder, "the Dragonborn should understand her place in the prophecy."

"Now, come with me," Esbern said as he lead Fakhriya to the next panel.

"Here we see the Nord Heroes battling Alduin," Esbern said as he raised the torch to illuminate the panel.

"Does it say how they defeated Alduin?" Delphine interjected.

"You must be patient - " Esbern started to say. "Wait, what's this?" Esbern moved the torch closer to the panel.

"This symbol here?" Esbern turned to look at Fakhriya. "That is the Akavari symbol for shout. All the Nord Heroes were extraordinary tongues, were they not? But a shout that can pull a dragon out of the air? Remarkable. I've never heard of such a thing."

"A shout?" Delphine responded as Esbern continued to mutter to himself. "You, Dragonborn. Do you know this shout?"

"This would be a very distinct shout," Esbern interjected. "Something specific to dragons or even to Alduin himself."

"No, I'm sure I don't," Fakhriya replied, "but I think I know who would be familiar with it: the Greybeards."

"Oh, yeah," Delphine said with a look of disdain, "They did accept you into their little cult, didn't they? Well, it appears we have no other choice. We'll have to ask the Greybeards for help."

"You don't think the Greybeards would be willing to help us?" Fakhriya asked. She seemed to recall a conversation she once had with Jenassa in which Jenassa suggested that the Greybeards might have raised Alduin for their own purposes.

"If anyone knows about the shout the Nord Heroes used, it'll be the Greybeards," Delphine conceded, "but they are too busy lying around talking to the sky – or whatever they do up there – to involve themselves in the problems of the real world. Alduin is wrecking havoc, a civil war is tearing the land apart, and what do they do with all the power they have up there in their isolated club house? Nothing. The Greybeards would have you sit on the mountaintop thinking about the destruction of the world rather than having you act to correct what has gone wrong."

"The Greybeards may be the best option we have," Esbern said. "If the panel offers any clues as to which shout the Nord Heroes used, that information will not be revealed easily."

"Now, look here, Dragonborn," Esbern said as he turned his attention back to the carving. "This panel will be of particular interest to you. In this last panel we see Alduin strengthened by consuming the souls of the dead. Despite his strength, Alduin is engaged in a fierce battle where his victory is by no means certain. And here – this symbol – this is the last Dragonborn."

Esbern turned to face Fakhriya.

"You are the last hope for humankind against the dragons," Esbern said gravely.

Fakhriya looked away from Esbern and considered the images in the final panel. Even in the Akavari prophecy the Dragonborn image seemed so insignificant compared to the size and ferocity of the dragon image. Yet, somehow, the image emboldened Fakhriya.

Fakhriya looked down at the long table where Jenassa had been sitting. Jenassa nodded and smiled when her gaze met Fakhriya's.

"Then I will go to see the Greybeards," Fakhriya announced. "We'll leave for High Hrothgar tomorrow morning."

"Excellent," Delphine said. "Come with me. There are sleeping quarters back here. You should be quite comfortable tonight."


	13. Chapter 13

In Sky Haven Temple Fakhriya learned that the ancient Nord Heroes had defeated Alduin with a Shout. Along with Jenassa, she has traveled to High Hrothgar to see if the Greybeards were familiar with the Shout that would pull a dragon out of the sky.

The Greybeards lived in isolation high atop the Throat of the World, the highest peak in Skyrim. Since the eruption of the Red Mountain in Morrowind early in the Fourth Era, the Throat of the World was the highest peak in Tamriel. The disciples of the Way of the Voice chose an outcropping halfway up the Snow Tower, as the Throat of the World was poetically called, as the site of their settlement not only for the remoteness of the location, but also to be closer to the Divine Kyne, the Sky Goddess and Warrior-Wife of Akatosh, who created humankind when she breathed life into the Throat of the World.

Kyne, who is referred to as Kynareth in the Imperial tradition and plays a lesser role as the handmaiden of Mara in that pantheon, also gave humankind the gift of the Voice. In the Nordic tradition, the throat is the seat of the soul and a person's ordinary breath and voice are manifestations of the sacred life essence. Through the Voice, humankind was given access to the magic of dragons.

Breath and speech among the dragons are pathways to an intensely powerful magic source. The words of the dragon language are not only a means of communication but also a means of manipulating the environment. Individual dragon words contain magical constructs and certain words used together intensify the magical effects. Dragon Thu'ums, or Shouts, typically consist of one to three words. Shouts can be used to move objects, to calm or disarm enemies, or to project fire or ice, among other things. As a result of the magic of Thu'ums, among the dragons there is no difference between a verbal debate and a physical battle.

Although all humans have the ability to learn Thu'ums, the Nords believe that Kyne gave them a unique affinity for mastering the Voice. Many of the ancient Nord war chiefs were skilled Tongues, as those with the ability to use Thu'ums were called. It was common during the First Era for Nord armies to rely on the Thu'ums of their chiefs rather than mundane siege weapons to break down the walls of cities.

It was during this time of expansion of Nordic influence in northern Tamriel that the meditative discipline, the Way of the Voice, was developed. In 1E 416 Nordic armies suffered an annihilating defeat at the hands of the Chimer and Dwemer at Red Mountain. Jurgen Windcaller, who was the greatest Tongue who ever lived, was dismayed at the resounding defeat and meditated for seven years to understand how an army with the advantage of the Voice could be destroyed. Windcaller came to the conclusion that the Divines were punishing humankind for squandering the power of the Voice for personal gain and glory. When Windcaller preached to the Nord war chiefs that the Voice was intended as a means to enlightenment and reverence to the Divine rather than a means to power, seventeen Tongues challenged the new philosophy by calling him to battle. According to legend Jurgen Windcaller swallowed the Shouts of the Tongues for three days until the Tongues lay defeated and exhausted. Convinced of the strength and righteousness of the path, the seventeen Tongues followed Jurgen Windcaller to the Throat of the World to build High Hrothgar. The followers of the Way of the Voice have remained there ever since.

Since Jurgen Windcaller's day, countless pilgrims have traveled to the Throat of the World to climb the Seven Thousand Steps from the base of the mountain near the small settlement of Ivarstead to High Hrothgar. Many who make the journey take the time to meditate on the stone tablets that offer the insights of Jurgen Windcaller on their way up the mountain. Although it is an arduous climb, many people have successfully made the journey to High Hrothgar but nearly none have found their way into the fortress. The Greybeards were rarely seen by outsiders and only allowed a select few to enter their settlement. Notably, the Greybeards have only summoned two individuals to High Hrothgar in the last six hundred years: Tiber Septim and Fakhriya, the last Dragonborn. A handful of other people have been granted the opportunity to study the Voice with the Greybeards. Most who were admitted to study remained as monks, but among those who have had the opportunity to train in the Voice were Jarl Balgruuf the Greater of Whiterun, who did not do particularly well in his studies, and Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak of Eastmarch, who was successfully trained and reputedly used the Voice in the Reach during his conquest of that hold and used it in personal combat against High King Torygg.

Fakhriya's mother, who grew up in Falkreath, made the pilgrimage to High Hrothgar when she was in her early twenties with two of her friends. All three young women were devoted to the worship of Kyne and pledged to one another that they would make the trip in honor of the Storm Goddess before any of them were married. When the first of the three agreed to marry a local carpenter, the wedding was delayed until the autumn so the women could climb the Throat of the World that summer. Fakhriya's mother described the journey up the Seven Thousands Steps as the most difficult and fulfilling adventure of her life.

Fakhriya had lost count of how many times she had traveled to High Hrothgar since being summoned to the fortress after she absorbed her first dragon soul in Whiterun. To see if the Greybeards could teach her the Shout that the Nord Heroes used to battle Alduin, she was making her third or fourth trip up the mountain in less than a year.

Although the snow line had receded in the warm Rain's Hand air near the base of the mountain, the Seven Thousand Steps were snow covered at the elevation where High Hrothgar stood. It took a few moments for Fakhriya and Jenassa to adjust to the dimly lit interior of the fortress after the bright and blinding ascent. It was late in the afternoon and the monks of High Hrothgar had retired to their living quarters. Fakhriya found Arngier, the only Greybeard among the four currently residing in the mountain fortress who had ever spoken to Fakhriya in the common tongue. He was eating an apple and reading a book when she found him.

"Sky guard you, Dragonborn," Arngier said to Fakhriya as he closed his book.

"Well met, Arngier. I came to learn the Shout that will help me defeat Alduin," Fakhriya said. Arngier's expression soured.

"Where did you hear of such a Shout?" Arngier asked with suspicion and annoyance.

"I've been to Alduin's Wall," Fakhriya replied sheepishly.

"So you've been listening to the Blades?" Arngier accused. "They have a long history of meddling in the affairs of the Dragonborn. If that is the company you prefer to keep, then there is little here that would be of use to you."

"But they said you could help me," Fakhriya protested. "Why won't you teach me the Shout?"

"I cannot teach it to you because I do not know it," Arngier replied. "There is nothing here for you. Be gone."

Fakhriya stood for a moment in disbelief. Tears of frustration welled in her eyes as she turned from Arngier and stormed off. Fakhriya could not believe that she had traveled so far to learn nothing. As Fakhriya was passing another of the Greybeards sitting beside a book shelf, the monk held up his hand to indicate that Fakhriya should wait. The monk, Einarth, had never spoken to Fakhriya except to teach her the word "Ro", which means "balance" in the dragon tongue. "Ro" was the second word in a Shout that allowed Fakhriya to push objects with her voice. Einarth smiled at Fakhriya and looked to the ceiling.

Suddenly the ground shook violently and a deep, bellowing voice cried out in the dragon tongue.

Einarth smirked as he indicated that Fakhriya should turn around.

"I offer you my apologies, Dragonborn," Arngier stammered. "As Paarthurnax has reminded me, yours is a unique condition. It is not my place to hold you to the tenets of the Way of the Voice if you have not chosen that path for yourself."

"Who is Paarthurnax?" Fakhriya asked.

"Paarthurnax is the greatest among us," Arngier replied. "It is his will that you learn the Shout you seek. You will meet him later."

"For now, come with me," Arngier said as he lead the way to the courtyard. "In order for you to reach the summit to see Paarthurnax, I must teach you another Shout."

Although it was often damp and chilly within the walls of High Hrothgar, the cold mountain air was still a shocking slap to the face as Arngier, Fakhriya, Jenassa and the other Greybeards stepped outside. The sky and snow had taken on a pinkish orange hue as the sun sank to the western horizon.

Arngier moved to a place in the courtyard where the paved stones peeked through the snow. There he telepathically etched three words into the stone: "Lok" meaning "sky", "Vah" meaning "Spring" and "Koor" meaning "Summer". The words appeared to be cut into the stone like an ordinary carving but they glowed from within with a white hot light. Fakhriya stood before each word in turn. On each occasion the word glowed intensely as Fakhriya looked upon it. Much like the energy that could be seen swirling out of a dragon's body when Fakhriya absorbed its soul, the words emitted an eddy that surrounded Fakhriya and seemed to pour itself into her body.

Each word cleared all thought out of Fakhriya's head. She saw the word in her mind in all its facets. The sensation reminded Fakhriya of unfolding paper. At first the word was a small packet, but as it unfolded more was revealed. She could feel the mundane and then the magical aspects of the word taking root in her mind and body. The rush of alternating between the comprehension of the magical aspects of the dragons' words and the return to her own mundane senses left Fakhriya dizzy. Jenassa put her hands on Fakhriya's waist and arm to steady her as she swayed under the magic's influence.

The Shout allowed Fakhriya to clear fog and inclement weather. Without the benefit of dragon blood an ordinary human would have needed a decade or more to comprehend what Fakhriya had learned in less than an hour.

After Fakhriya regained her bearings, Arngier directed Fakhriya's attention to an archway at the opposing end of the courtyard.

"Tomorrow you can use the Shout you have been taught to reach the summit where Paarthurnax awaits," Arngier said. "Tonight, you are welcome to what we have by way of food and shelter."

Fakhriya and Jenassa set out early the next morning for the summit of the Throat of the World. The women had not ventured far from the archway at the edge of the courtyard before they realized that the climb to the summit would be much more treacherous than the well traveled path that brought them to High Hrothgar had been. After traveling a short distance up the mountain the clear blue skies gave way to a dense fog.

"Lok vah koor," Fakhirya shouted. The fog split as if her words had cut into it and then the fog disappeared. A goat that had not been visible before the fog was lifted was startled by the presence of the women and ran ahead on the steep, narrow path. As the women made their ascent, the fog rolled back in. Fakhriya was forced to repeatedly use the Shout she had learned to clear the road to the summit.

It was midmorning by the time Fakhriya and Jenassa approached the peak. They were nearly to the top when Fakhriya abruptly stopped.

"What's the matter?" Jenassa asked.

"I don't know," Fakhriya said. "Something feels weird."

"Weird, like how?" Jenassa asked.

"I don't know," Fakhirya said. She shook her head as if she were regaining her senses. "Just weird. It's OK. It just feels odd."

The women continued up the path. They were surprised to see a dragon sunning itself on a stone wall. Jenassa immediately drew her sword, but Fakhriya held out her arm to stop Jenassa before she could advance on the beast. Fakhriya wasn't certain, but she thought the dragon smiled at her.

"_Dovahkiin, drem yol lok_," the dragon said. "Greetings."

Fakhirya was dumbfounded, but she approached the dragon without trepidation. Jenassa lowered her weapon but did not sheath it.

Paarthurnax seemed to take immense pleasure in speaking to someone new, but the dragon clearly struggled to make himself understood in the common tongue. He often resorted to speaking in the dragon language and then translating sentence fragments into the comparatively unfamiliar common language Fakhriya knew. Paarthurnax taught Fakhriya a shout that allowed her to expel fire from her throat so that he might exchange greetings with the Dovahkiin as dragons do. He then led Fakhriya in a circular conversation laden with ritual, formality and philosophical debate before he allowed the discussion to turn to the thu'um that Fakhriya sought.

"I knew you would come for this as Alduin and the Dovahkiin return together, but I cannot teach you Dragonrend," Paarthurnax finally announced. "The thu'um was created by men to use against dragonkind. The very concept of the thu'um is incomprehensible to me."

"If you can't teach it to me, who can?" Fakhriya asked.

"When your ancient heroes defeated Alduin, they did not destroy him, but instead sent him forward in time to remove him from their path," Paarthurnax explained. "In doing so, they created a _tiid ahraan,_ a time wound. The humans used an Elder Scroll to open the time wound in this place. If you could find an Elder Scroll and open it here, you may gain the insight you need to defeat Alduin."

Fakhriya knew that finding an Elder Scroll would be no simple task. Elder Scrolls existed both inside and outside the flow of time and contained the recordings of both the past and the future. Before the Great War the Imperial Library in Cyrodiil housed a vast number of them, but when the Imperial City fell to the Aldmeri Dominion, the store of Scrolls was lost. Because Paarthurnax had long removed himself from the world of humans, he had no suggestions as to where or how Fakhriya might find an Elder Scroll.

Although there were still a couple of hours of daylight left when Fakhriya and Jenassa reached High Hrothgar, the women thought better of continuing down the mountain. The Seven Thousand Steps were well traveled, but it would be dark before the women reached Ivarstead. The Greybeards extended their hospitality to Fakhriya and Jenassa for another night. Arngier suggested the women go to the College of Winterhold to search for an Elder Scroll.


	14. Chapter 14

Fakhriya learned from Paartharnux, the dragon practitioner of the Way of the Voice, that the ancient Nord Heroes used a specific Shout to cripple Alduin but were unable to defeat the World Eater atop the Throat of the World in the First Era. Instead they used an Elder Scroll to force Alduin out of the stream of time. Now that the World Eater has rejoined the linear flow of time in the plane of Mundus, Fahkriya must find an Elder Scroll to use at the Time Wound that was created in that ancient battle to learn the Shout of the ancient Nord Heroes and defeat Alduin once and for all.

The scent of the air became salty well before Fakhriya and Jenassa could see the city of Winterhold, which was situated on a bleak cliff high above the Sea of Ghosts. The city, which was the seat of the hold of the same name, was a meager settlement that seemed to be losing in the struggle against the icy waters that battered the coast. According to legend, the great Archmage Shalidor created the city in the First Era with a whispered spell. Since then, Winterhold had always been associated with the arcane arts. The Mage's College, which was established by Shalidor with the goal of developing higher standards in the instruction and use of magic by skilled practitioners, stood apart on an isolated butte separate from the mainland like a defiant gem glittering in the open sea.

The Velothi Mountains separated the college town from the bustling port of Windhelm to the southeast. Vast glacial plains made travel treacherous between Winterhold and the smaller port of Dawnstar to the west. Despite Winterhold's remote and inhospitable location at the northernmost tip of Skyrim, the city historically rivaled Solitude in wealth and political importance.

When High King Borgas of Winterhold was murdered in 1E 369, Jarl Hanse of Winterhold was considered the heir apparent. When the Moot, the council of Jarls who elect the High King, failed to install Hanse, Skyrim was plunged into the War of Succession, which lasted fifty years and firmly established Solitude as the seat of the High King with the accession of Olaf One-Eye of Whiterun. As a result of the War of Succession, the Pact of Chieftains established the convention that if a sitting High King had a direct heir, the Moot would not challenge the succession, but would still convene to formally recognize the installment of the heir. The Moot, however, reserved the right to remove a sitting High King if the Jarls lost confidence in the High King's ability to rule.

Since the 1E 420 there had not been a challenge for the throne of the High King until Ulfric Stormcloak challenged the accession of Torygg to the throne after his father's death in the 4E 201. Ulfric challenged the heir to personal combat in accordance with ancient Nord tradition and defeated the young High King. Although Ulfric's victory in hand to hand combat against the High King gave him a claim the throne, there was much controversy over the challenge. Ulfric's detractors were quick to point out that the tradition Ulfric cited to legitimize his right to challenge the accession predated the Pact of Chieftains. Furthermore, Ulfric's use of a Thu'um in personal combat, though a common tactic in the First Era, had not been widely considered a legitimate use of the Voice since Paarthurnax assumed his post atop the Throat of the World. Ulfric's supporters claimed that the challenge was a fair exercise of the rights of Jarls as defined in the Pact of Chieftains and asserted that Ulfric's adherence to the old ways mark Skyrim's return to its true Nordic roots. In Rain's Hand 4E 202, Ulfric's claim to the throne of the High King was a driving issue of the ongoing civil war.

Fakhriya had briefly considered attending the College of Winterhold to study either Alchemy or Alteration magic, but settled on studying music at the Bard's College instead. Her mother came from a long line of alchemists, but Fakhriya found she lacked the raw talent and the passion for mixing potions that her mother had. Her mother's sister had taught Fakhriya the basics of Alteration magic when she was a little girl against the wishes of Fakhriya's father, who adhered to the Redguard belief that elven magic was inherently cowardly and deceitful. As a child, Fakhriya entertained her friends by casting light orbs in dark rooms, but as a young adventurer, she had come to find the armor spells of the discipline invaluable. Her father did have some influence on Fakhriya sensibilities in regard to magic. Like her father, Fakhriya hated soul gems. Fakhriya found the idea of storing a life force, even that of an animal, in a crystal to be unnatural and evil. As a result, Fakhriya did not use enchanted weapons and would not even carry a soul gem for the purpose of selling it.

Because neither Fakhriya nor Jenassa were students at the Mage's College, it took some effort to gain admittance to the campus, but after a conversation with the self appointed admittance officer and another with the dean of magic studies, the adventurers were permitted to enter the Arcanaeum, the college's library.

Except for two or three individuals who studied at different tables, the arcanaeum was deserted. Most likely the students who had assignments due on Morndas would not arrive until Sundas to complete their work. As Fakhriya recalled from her own studies, no one went to the library on Fredas. The chief librarian, a burly Orc, sat at a large desk directly opposite the entrance at the far end of the arcanaeum.

"I don't recall seeing the two of you in here before," said the Orsimer librarian when Fakhriya and Jenassa approached his desk, "so I will give you the same speech I give all new students. Many of the books in here are very rare, very valuable and irreplaceable. I will consider it a personal offense if you carelessly do any damage to any of them. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Fakhriya replied. She felt sort of bad for the students at the Mage's College. Although there were some rare books at the Bard's College, most books the students used were widely available, so students felt free to add their own lyrics or interpretative drawings to the margins. Some of the impromptu work was remarkably clever.

"Now that we have that clear, how can I help you ladies?" the Orc asked.

"We've come here in search of an Elder Scroll," Fakhriya said.

"Do you even know what you are asking?" the librarian laughed. "I don't have an Elder Scroll here, and even if I did, I certainly wouldn't hand it out to any student who asked for it. That thing would be locked up so tightly that the greatest thief in Tamriel wouldn't be able to lay a finger on it."

"Well, I need to find one and I was told you could help," Fakhriya said. "Do you at least have any information on Elder Scrolls?"

"That I can do you for," the librarian replied as he got up from his seat. "We don't have much and what we do have is mostly lies leavened with rumor and conjecture, but you're welcome to it." He left Fakhriya and Jenassa standing at the desk while he went to several nearby shelves. He returned with two books.

"You are not permitted to take these out of the Arcanaeum, but you may look through them as long as like. Be careful not to spill anything on them," the Orc said as he placed the books before Fakhriya on the counter. Fakhriya took the books and sat down at a nearby table.

"I've actually read this one," Fakhriya said as she handed Jenassa the first book, entitled _Effects of the Elder Scrolls._ Jenassa opened the book and started skimming through it. Fakhriya turned her attention to the other book, _Ruminations on the Elder Scrolls._ The book made no sense. At first Fakhriya thought she simply wasn't reading carefully enough, but the book read like someone's streaming, disjointed, nearly crazed thoughts. Sentences would begin with one idea and end with another. She brought the book with her to the librarian's desk.

"I can't seem to make any sense of this," Fakhriya said as she placed the book on the counter. "Can you help me with it?" The librarian turned the book so the title faced him.

"That's the work of Septimus Signus," the librarian said as if that would explain the craziness of the text. "He's the world's master of the nature of Elder Scrolls, but...well. He's been gone for a long while. Too long."

"He's dead?" Fakhriya asked.

"Oh, no," the librarian said, "at least, I hope not. But even I haven't seen him in years, and we were close. He became obsessed with the Dwemer and took off north in search of some artifact. The last I heard, he was somewhere in the ice fields if you want to find him."

"And he'll be able to help me find an Elder Scroll?" Fakhriya asked.

"He's probably the best shot you have," the librarian replied. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Fakhriya turned to see Jenassa fully engrossed in the other Elder Scroll book.

"Actually, there is something else," Fakhriya said. "Do you have anything on the Markarth Incident?"

Fakhriya and Jenassa spent Fredas night and the better part of Loredas in the Arcanaeum. While Jenassa read _Effects of the Elder Scrolls_ cover to cover, Fakhriya read more casually through the two books the librarian found on the Markarth Incident, _The Madmen of the Reach _and _The Bear of Markarth._ Both were written by an Imperial scholar who took a dim view of the Nord's historical treatment of the Reachmen and of the events in the Reach after the Great War. The second book, _The Bear of Markarth, _flatly accused Ulfric Stormcloak of committing war crimes in the Reach. Late Loredas afternoon, Fakhriya and Jenassa went shopping for horker skin boots, which would provide better protection against the frigid waters of the ice fields.

Bright and early on Sundas morning the women followed a path that lead down to the water at the edge of the city and continued onto the vast expanse of ice that extended well into the Ghost Sea. Armed with only a crude map drawn by the librarian, the women spent the better part of the day searching for Septimus Signus's outpost. It was past midday by the time they found Septimus's hideout, but with the college clearly in sight from their vantage point, they were hopeful that they could return to Winterhold after they concluded their business with Septimus before nightfall.

That optimism was short lived.

Septimus was as crazy as his book. Septimus talked in endless circles about Elder Scrolls and Dwemer and time and astral planes and all sorts of esoteric topics. Fakhriya could barely make heads or tails out of anything the hermit scholar said, but she did understand the only two parts of Septimus's monologue that mattered to her: One, there was likely an Elder Scroll deep beneath the ruins at Alftand, the site of a Dwemer archeological dig located on the glacial plains in the Pale, and two, Septimus would supply the key for accessing the Elder Scroll. In exchange for the key, Septimus asked that Fakhriya use a Dwemer machine to scribe a blank lexicon cube with the information contained in the Elder Scroll and return the cube to him. Fakhriya wasn't keen on promising to return to the remote outpost, but it seemed a reasonable trade. The women stayed the night in Septimus's cramped quarters and set out the next day for Alftand.

The Dwemer, or dwarves as humans typically referred to them, were an industrious and mysterious race of people, who were unrivaled masters of science, engineering and the arcane. Unlike the other ethnicities of mer, which can trace their origin to the first tribes of Altmer, the Dwemer seemed to rise concurrent to but separate from the Altmer. Where most mer societies are daedric worshipping, the Dwemer were agnostic. Dwemer technology, which utilized elaborate networks of water and steam carrying tubes to operate hydraulic machines and used soul gems to power drone guards, was unlike anything else ever seen in Tamriel. The Dwemer were among the original inhabitants of modern day Morrowind and built vast underground cities in modern Morrowind, Skyrim and Hammerfell. The Dwemer warred frequently with the Nords in the First Era, but the humans were considered a minor threat until the third century of the First Era when decades of in-fighting among the Dwemeri underground city-states left the Dwemer vulnerable to human encroachment. A common human enemy led to an uneasy alliance between the Dwemer and the Chimer, the forerunners of modern day Dunmer. With the expulsion of the humans from the underground cities, the Dwemer and Chimer eventually went to war with each other in Morrowind. Meanwhile, in Skyrim, the tribes of Dwemer faced a decades long uprising of Falmer, a mer tribe who had been utilized as slave labor by the Dwemer since humans first appeared in Tamriel.

Then sometime around 1E 700 the Dwemer simply disappeared. There has never been a scholarly consensus on why or how the Dwemer left Tamriel. An entire race of people just left the continent with only their ruins as proof they had ever existed.

Alftand was one of countless Dwemer sites that dotted Skyrim's landscape. Because the Dwemer were such clever and secretive engineers, few of their cities had been thoroughly explored. Fakhriya and Jenassa, however, were not the first adventurers to reach Alftand. An earlier expedition had dug deep into the snow to gain access to a building well beneath the surface. The earlier expedition could not have arrived more than a few weeks ahead of Fakhriya and Jenassa, as one of the Khajit laborers on the dig was a skooma addict who apparently killed his brother in a withdrawal fueled rage. Fakhriya and Jenassa killed the Khajit when he attacked them. As Fakhriya and Jenassa pressed deeper into the Dwemer ruin, they discovered the bodies of other members of the dig who fell victim to Dwemer automatons or to bands of Falmer who still occupied the abandoned city. In the Alftand Cathedral Fakhriya and Jenassa stumbled upon the last two surviving members of the expedition who were half crazed and fighting each other. Sadly, the women were forced to dispatch the winner, who turned on them after she defeated her friend. With an attunement sphere given to Fakhriya by Septimus, Fakhriya was able to unlock a staircase that exited Alftand and opened to the vast underground cavern of Blackreach.

It had taken Fakhirya and Jenassa roughly three or four days to work their way from the surface where the expedition had set up to camp to the depths of Blackreach. Now the women had their work cut out for them. Immense glowing mushrooms were the only light source in the cavern. The women could see roughly a mile where the light was adequate, but there were expanses of inky blackness that extended Divines only knew how far.

Septimus told them they needed to reach the Tower of Mzark to find the Elder Scroll the Dwemer locked away, but the women had no idea where that would be in relation to where they were. There was a road of sorts in front of the Alftand Cathedral. That was as good a place as any to start. Fakhriya and Jenassa stuck to the road as well as they could as they fought off assaults from Falmer, huge flying insects, and Dwemer automatons. In some buildings along the way, they even came across humans, but since the humans attacked the women on sight, Fakhriya and Jenassa could not determine who they were or why they were in Blackreach.

After several days of exploring and resting fitfully whenever they could, the women were exhausted. It was a lucky thing that they happened to stumble upon the tower they were looking for. They were surprised to realize they were not the first to make it that far. In the first room of the tower Fakhriya and Jenassa found the remnants of a camp site. It clearly had not be occupied for quite a while, but it also was not anywhere near as old as the surrounding structure. If the previous people had met a bad end, it didn't appear that they suffered their fate in the immediate area. Although it was hardly comfortable to sleep in old, abandoned bedrolls on a hard, stone floor, that night Fakhriya and Jenassa slept better than they had since reaching Alftand.

The next morning Fakhriya and Jenassa discovered the Oculary, a massive device with huge lenses that were controlled from a series of buttons on a platform adjacent to the structure. On the edge of the Oculary Jenassa discovered the skeletal remains of the man who likely left the make shift camp behind. In the journal that was discovered near the body it was revealed that the dead man had spent his final days trying to line up the lenses of the device, although there was no indication that the man knew what would happen if he succeeded. The journal suggested that he had his own lexicon - apparently the device would not operate without one - but his lexicon was no where to be found.

Fakhriya and Jenassa took turns working the buttons, reading the journal for clues and sitting in frustration while the other tried her luck in lining up the lenses. When the lenses suddenly aligned after hours of fruitless attempts, Fakhriya shrieked in delight.

"By Azura's light, you did it!" Jenassa exclaimed when she looked up from the journal and saw the glass enclosure that housed the Elder Scroll that rose out of the center of the device beneath the line of lenses. Jenassa walked gingerly along a strut to the center of the device to retrieve the Elder Scroll.

"Oh, I almost forgot the lexicon," Fakhriya said as she left the platform to meet Jenassa. She went back up to fetch the cube. The intricate etchings in the cube were among the most elaborate Fakhriya had ever seen. From her position on the Oculary, Jenassa could see a doorway leading to a hydraulic lift. The lift took the women to a gateway at the top of the tower. It took several minutes to get their bearings from the remote mountainside where they emerged, but Fakhriya recognized Fort Dunstad off to the northeast. Fakhriya and Jenassa were still in the Pale, but they were nearly a day's travel from Alftrand.

The women were as good as their word. Although neither wanted to make the return trip north, Fakhriya and Jenassa knew they never would have found an Elder Scroll without Septimus's help. After returning the etched lexicon to Septimus, the women journeyed to Winterhold, then to Windhelm and finally to Ivarstead. The last weeks had been taxing, so the women took the opportunity to rest a few days in the sleepy little village.

When Fakhriya and Jenassa reached the Throat of the World, it would be to face Alduin at the Time Wound.


	15. Chapter 15

Fakhriya and Jenassa have found an Elder Scroll to read at the Time Wound on the Throat of the World to learn the shout that will help Fakhriya defeat Alduin.

"You have it. The _Kel. _The Elder Scroll," Paarthurnax sat up from where he had been meditating on a sunny rock. "_Tiid kreh qalos. _Time shudders at its touch. _Kogaan Akatosh._ The very bones of the earth are at your disposal. Go then. Fulfill your destiny. Take the Scroll to the Time Wound. Do not delay. Alduin will be coming. He cannot miss the signs."

Jenassa hung back to position herself between Fakhriya and Paarthurnax while Fakhriya continued to the stone wall where the dragon taught her the Fire Breath shout.

As she approached the Word wall, Fakhriya's vision blurred. Fakhriya recalled from the books she and Jenassa had read in the Arcanaeum at the Mage's College that reading an Elder Scroll could cause blindness among those who trained for decades to read them. The uninitiated, like Fakhriya, risked madness in addition to blindness. The Scroll was still in her bag, but Fakhriya already felt compromised. Paarthurnax goaded her to read the Scroll. Fakhriya's hands shook as she removed the Elder Scroll from her pack. She took a deep breath and unfurled the Scroll.

The image on the Scroll looked to Fakhriya like a map of the heavens, but before she could take in the image, the ink on the page glowed with a white energy. A white spot seemed to originate from the center of the image and rapidly expanded until Fakhriya's entire field of vision was white.

When Fakhriya regained her sight, she seemed to be looking through the Scroll as if she were looking through a window. Fakhriya saw the Word wall where she had learned the Fire Breath shout, but the wall she saw through the Elder Scroll was in better repair than the wall had been at the point of time when Fakhriya learned the shout. Information flooded into Fakhriya's mind as she watched the Merethic Era battle play out before her.

A male Nord, Hakon, battled with a greatsword against a dragon. The dragon taunted him with the promise that Alduin would rule the plane of Mundus. A Nord woman, Gormlaith, joined the battle. She leapt onto the neck of the beast and drove her greatsword into the dragon's skull.

"Hakon, a glorious day, is it not?" Gormlaith cried as she jumped down from the slain dragon and sheathed her sword.

"Have you no thought beyond the blooding of your blade?" Hakon asked as he sheathed his own weapon.

"What else is there?" Gormlaith asked with laughter in her voice.

"The battle below goes ill," Hakon said. "If Alduin does not rise to our challenge, I fear all may be lost."

"You worry too much, brother," Gormlaith replied as she patted Hakon on the shoulder. "Victory will be ours."

The two warriors approached a mage.

"Why does Alduin hang back?" Hakon asked the mage. "We've staked everything on this plan of yours, old man."

"He will come. Alduin cannot ignore our defiance," Felldir, the mage, said. "And why should Alduin fear us, even now?"

"We've bloodied him well," Gormlaith bragged. "Four of his kin have fallen to my blade alone this day."

"But none have yet stood against Alduin himself," Felldir pointed out. "Galthor, Sorri, Birkir…"

"They did not have Dragonrend," Gormlaith countered. "Once we bring Alduin down, I promise I will have his head."

"You do not understand. Alduin cannot be slain like a lesser dragon. He is beyond our strength, which is why I brought the Elder Scroll," Felldir said as he produced the Scroll for the warriors to see.

"Felldir! We agreed not to use it," Hakon protested.

"I never agreed," Felldir stated. "And if you are right, I will not need it."

"No," Hakon insisted as he shook his head. "We will deal with Alduin ourselves, here and now."

"We shall see soon enough," Gormlaith interjected as she pointed to the sky. "Alduin approaches."

"So be it," Hakon replied with a determined tone as he unsheathed his blade.

Alduin landed atop the Word Wall and taunted the Nords in the dragon tongue. The two warriors advanced with their weapons to flank Alduin, but before they could get within striking range, Alduin spread his wings to fly. Alduin rose barely a foot from Word Wall when the three heroes shouted in unison.

"_Joor zah frul!_"

An amorphous blue energy engulfed Alduin's body. Despite his efforts to resist the effects of the shout, Alduin was forced to land in front of the Heroes.

"_Nivahriin joorre!_" Alduin cursed. "What have you done? What twisted words have you created? _Tahrodiis __Paarthurnax__!_ My teeth to his neck! But first…_dir ko maar._ You will die in terror, knowing your final fate: To feed my power when I come for you in Sovngarde!"

In that moment Fakhriya's understanding of Paarthurnax expanded beyond his role in Nordic legend. The Nords described Paarthurnax as the emissary of Kyne who did her bidding by teaching the first Tongues, Gormlaith, Hakon and Felldir. Paarthurnax, however, had been a loyal brother to Alduin and had fought with him to subdue humankind until Alduin claimed to be a god. Alduin's arrogance prompted Paarthurnax to betray the dragons in the Dragon War and to teach the humans to use thu'ums.

The warriors attacked the grounded dragon, but Alduin did not seem to suffer from the inflicted blows. Gormlaith moved forward to slash at Alduin's throat. Alduin snatched her in his jaws and shook the life out of her. He tossed her body aside like a discarded apple core.

"No, damn you!" Hakon cried out when Gormlaith was snatched. He maintained his fighting stance, but backed away from the dragon. "It's no use! Use the scroll, Felldir! Now!"

Felldir stepped forward and unfurled the Elder Scroll.

"Hold, Alduin on the Wing! Sister Hawk, grant us your sacred breath to make this contract heard. Be gone, World Eater!"

Alduin turned his attention from the warrior and unleashed his fiery breath in the direction of the mage. Felldir held the Elder Scroll before his face as if he were using it as a shield against the stream of fire that passed around him.

"By words with older bones than your own we break your perch on this age and send you out!" Felldir yelled above the din of Alduin's shout. "You are banished! Alduin, we shout you out from all our endings unto the last!"

"_Faal Kel,_" Alduin protested as he reacted to Felldir's words. "_Nikriinne…_"

Alduin disappeared and then the blue energy of Dragonrend dissipated.

"You are banished!" Felldir cried. The mage and warrior stood for a moment and stared at the place where Alduin had been.

"It worked," Hakon said in amazement. "You did it."

"Yes, the World Eater is gone," Felldir said. He sounded like he could barely believe it himself. "May the spirits have mercy on our souls."

The images Fakhriya had been watching faded. She momentarily saw the mundane physical page of the Elder Scroll and then her entire field of vision faded to white. Fakhriya felt herself letting the Elder Scroll fall from her hand. As her ordinary vision was restored, Fakhriya saw the snow swirling in the wind and she became aware of her position near the Word wall. A feeling of dread seemed to pour over Fakhriya from overhead. She looked up to see Alduin hovering before her.

"_Bahloki nahkip sillesejoor_," Alduin taunted. "My belly is full of the souls of your fellow mortals, Dovahkiin. Die now and await your fate in Sovngarde!"

Fakhriya cast an armor spell on herself and sought cover behind the Word wall. She didn't see where Jenassa went. Paarthurnax took off from the rock where he had been sitting. Fakhriya looked up to see the two dragons circling each other in the sky. She couldn't tell if the dragons were fighting or getting reacquainted.

"Dovahkiin, use Dragonrend if you know it," Paarthurnax yelled to Fakhriya as he swooped over her head.

Fakhriya emerged from her hiding place. Jenassa came up from behind her. She was firing arrows in the direction of the dragons, but the beasts were moving too fast for Jenassa's assault to have any effect.

Fakhriya watched as Paarthurnax shouted fire at Alduin. Alduin hovered and turned to face his brother.

"_Joor zah frul!_" Fakhriya shouted. A pale blue bubble of energy was expelled from Fakhriya's mouth. The bubble expanded as it moved towards Alduin, but the dragon was too far away. The bubble collapsed and disappeared before it reached its target. Alduin stopped his assault against Paarthurnax and flew away. Fakhriya lost sight of Alduin. She couldn't locate him until he swooped down behind her and shouted Fire Breath. Fakhriya ran to get out of the path of the flames, but Alduin stayed with her. Jenassa yelled at the dragon to face her if he dared while Fakhriya hid among some rocks opposite the Word wall. Fakhriya had been burned pretty badly. She drank a potion to stave off the pain. Then she looked to the sky once again in search of Alduin.

The two dragons were off to Fakhriya's left. One dragon was shouting fire at the other, but Fakhriya could not tell the dragons apart. The two of them battled and then broke off. Paarthurnax landed on a boulder in front of Fakhriya and to her right. Alduin hovered opposite Paarthurnax and behind Fakhriya. Fakhriya turned and shouted, "_Joor zah frul!_"

This time the blue energy surrounded Alduin. Alduin ascended momentarily, but the force of Dragonrend brought him to the ground. Paarthurnax took off when Alduin tried to ascend. He landed in front of his brother and shouted fire in his direction.

With Alduin on the ground, Fakhriya and Jenassa launched an attack against the dragon. Jenassa was on Alduin's left with her back to the Word wall. She hacked at the dragon's neck, but her assault was cut short as she moved away to avoid Paarthurnax's fiery onslaught. Fakhriya, meanwhile, was stabbing at Alduin's belly from the dragon's right side.

The blue energy around Alduin seemed to come apart like old fabric as the effects of the shout waned. Fakhriya shouted again to keep the dragon on the ground. Jenassa resumed her attack when Paarthurnax took to the air to avoid Alduin's shout at him. Fakhriya moved closer to the dragon's neck as she stabbed at him, but she stopped her attack when she realized she needed to refresh her armor spell. Fakhriya moved back towards Alduin's tail so he would not snatch her in his jaws while she was casting the spell. In the moment that Fakhriya's armor spell was cast, the Dragonrend shout dissipated. Alduin was airborne before Fakhriya even had time to think of the words of the shout.

Cursing her luck, Fakhriya again sought cover among the rocks and tried to locate Alduin in the air. Alduin was hovering high overhead. Fakhriya did not hear Alduin's shout, but she saw the wave of energy escape from the dragon's mouth. The sky grew ominously dark. Dark clouds swirled around Alduin. Lightning flashed behind him. The ground shook as a fiery rock slammed into the dirt in front of Fakhriya. Flaming meteors fell to the ground like rain and pounded against the mountainside with deafening thuds. Fakhriya gave up her cover to escape the falling boulders. She was pelted with the debris of smashing meteors as she ran. Alduin then swooped down to shout fire at her. This time Fakhriya was able to change direction quickly enough to escape the brunt of Alduin's shout. Fakhriya pressed her body against the Word wall. She saw Jenassa crouching with her hands clasped over her head in a feeble attempt to protect herself from the rocks falling out of the sky.

Paarthurnax darted under Alduin to divert his attention from the women. Fakhriya moved away from the Word wall and waited for an opportunity to shout. When Alduin broke off to momentarily to rest, Fakhriya unleashed Dragonrend. The blue energy of the shout enveloped Alduin and pulled him to the ground. Paarthurnax immediately landed to engage his brother. Jenassa positioned herself near Alduin's midsection to hack as his body. Fakhriya climbed atop an outcropping of rocks and fired arrows into Alduin. She was determined that Alduin would not take to the air again. Fakhriya refreshed the Dragonrend shout twice more as the women continued their assault. Alduin escaped to the air before Fakhriya could shout a fourth time.

"Meyz mul, Dovahkiin. You have become strong," Alduin said, "but I am Alduin, firstborn of Akatosh! Mulaagi zok lot! I cannot be slain here but you or anyone else! You cannot prevail against me. I will outlast you, mortal!"

With those words, Alduin flew away. Paarthurnax landed on the Word wall. Fakhriya and Jenassa took a preliminary inventory of their wounds.

"You truly have the Voice of a dovah," Paarthurnax said. "Alduin's allies will think twice after this victory."

"But I did not defeat him," Fakhriya replied.

"True, this is not the final victory," Paarthurnax answered, "but not even the heroes of old were able to defeat Alduin in open battle. Alduin always was arrogant. He took domination as his birthright. This should shake the loyalty of the dov that serve him."

"I need to find out where Alduin went," Fakhriya stated.

"Yes, one of his allies could tell us, but it will not be so easy to convince one of them to betray him," Paarthurnax conceded. "Perhaps the palace in Whiterun, Dragonsreach. It was originally built to house a captured dovah. A fine place to capture one of Alduin's allies, hm?"

"The Jarl of Whiterun might not think so," Fakhriya mused.

"Hm, yes, but your thu'um is strong," Paarthurnax countered. "I do not doubt that you can convince him of the need."


End file.
